MI6: The Real James Bonds 1909-39

“Engrossing. . . . As a rollicking chronicle of demented derring-do, Smith’s book is hard to beat. His research is prodigious and his eye for a good story impeccable, and his book, while perfectly scholarly, often reads like a real-life James Bond thriller.”—Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday TimesSix tells the complete story of the Secret Intelligence Service’s birth in 1909 and its first thirty years, including the tragic tale of what happened to Britain’s extensive interwar networks in Soviet Russia. It tells the story of Britain’s hidden networks in the United States, thwarting German shipping saboteurs and tracking down Indian seditionaries. It also shows the development of “tradecraft” and the great personal risk officers and their agents took, far from home and unprotected, as well as the violence meted out in the King’s name—including running a Swiss murder gang that used attractive girls to lure and murder Bolshevik messengers.