The Secret History of MI6

The authorized history of the world's oldest and most storied foreign intelligence service, drawing extensively on hitherto secret documents.

Britain's Special Intelligence Service, commonly called MI6, is not only the oldest and most storied foreign intelligence unit in the world—it is also the only one to open its archives to an outside researcher. The result, in this authorized history, is an unprecedented and revelatory look at an organization that essentially created, over the course of two world wars, the modern craft of spying. Here are the true stories that inspired Ian Fleming's James Bond's novels and John le Carré George Smiley novels.

Examining innovations from invisible ink and industrial-scale cryptography to dramatic setbacks like the Nazi sting operations to bag British operatives, this groundbreaking history is as engrossing as any thriller—and much more revealing."Perhaps the most authentic account one will ever read about how intelligence really works." -The Washington Times

"A very fine book...full of episode and personality." -The Telegraph

"An important cautionary tale that has implications worldwide." -Seattle TimesKeith Jeffery, MRIA was a Northern Irish historian specializing in modern British, British Imperial, and Irish history. He obtained his BA, MA, and PhD (1978) degrees from St. John's College, Cambridge, the latter under the supervision of John Andrew Gallagher, and was Professor of British history at Queen's University Belfast.