The Secret Agent's Bedside Reader

Description

Michael Smith is a former intelligence officer and one of the leading authorities on the history of Britain's spies. He has collected a series of thrilling and absorbing stories told by some of the greatest spies and spy writers in this one collection. Daring wartime plans devised by Ian Fleming to steal an Enigma machine for the Bletchley Park code breakers sit side by side with reports from MI6 traitor Kim Philby to Moscow Centre, operations in Bolshevik Russia by Sidney Reilly, the original Ace of Spies, and the literary spy stories of Joseph Conrad and Erskine Childers. A variety of stories from John Buchan's classic The 39 Steps, Conrad's The Secret Agent; accounts by Sir Paul Dukes and George Hill of their work inside Russia, two of the earliest heroes of MI6; and descriptions by the Cambridge spies from the KGB archives of the details they passed to the Russians cover every aspect of the espionage world, each accompanied by an expert introduction from Smith.

Michael Smith is an award-winning journalist and number one bestselling author. He served in the British Army's Intelligence Corps before joining the BBC and has since worked as a reporter for both the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times, covering the wars in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. His many journalistic scoops include the publication of the Downing Street memos, which exposed the way in which intelligence was 'fixed' in Washington DC in order to justify the war in Iraq. Smith's many books include Six: A History of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service 1909 - 1939; The Secrets of Station X: How the Bletchley Park Codebreakers Helped Win the War; The Spying Game; Britain's Secret War 1939 - 1945; and Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews, which led to the naming of MI6 offi cer Frank Foley as Righteous Among the Nations, the highest award the Israeli state can give to a gentile. He is also the editor, with Ralph Erskine, of The Bletchley Park Codebreakers. He lives near Henley-on-Thames with his wife and family.

A Spectator Book of the Year: "A compendium of fiction, memoir and archive material, never less than entertaining and surprisingly informative." The Spectator "If you crave armchair action and adventure this well-chosen anthology should prove thoroughly satisfying." The Good Book Guide