Author(s): Philip Parker

Military/War

The First World War was the cradle of modern espionage and the build-up to the conflict saw a scramble as the British government tried desperately to build an intelligence service. Taking as its cue these formative years, The Telegraph Book of Spies & Espionage relates the thrilling, intriguing and shadowy story of the spies and counter-intelligence operatives who engaged in an often deadly struggle to uncover the other side's secrets. As told by the editors, journalists and feature writers of the newspaper, this volume will trace the evolution of the various strands of British intelligence, from the foundation of what would become MI5 and MI6 to the sabotage operations of Special Operations Executive in the Second World War and the subterfuge experts of Naval Intelligence Unit, where Ian Fleming cut his teeth and formed the early ideas for his fictional creation James Bond. The book will cover the bitter struggle between Cold War antagonists, as new spying techniques emerged and treacherous webs of cross and double-cross entwined against the backdrop of an always looming nuclear conflict. The book will cover KGB defections, Stasi plots and CIA stings.
It will uncover the latest revelations about the Cambridge Spy Ring (following the recent release of some 80,000 previously classified documents) of Philby, Blunt, Burgess and Maclean. It will detail the new intelligence landscape of the post-Cold War World as the old certainties have dissolved and the spy services must counter and infiltrate new groups and face the challenges of cyberspies and cyberterrorists. Drawing on over a century of news, comment and analysis, The Telegraph Book of Spies& Espionage casts new light on a world that has long lived in the shadows.