THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER An exciting Cold War story about a KGB double agent, by one of Britain's greatest historians and the ultimate gift for anyone who loves a good spy thriller!'The best true spy story I have ever read' John le Carré________________On a warm July evening in 1985, a middle-aged man stood on the pavement of a busy avenue in the heart of Moscow, holding a plastic carrier bag. In his grey suit and tie, he looked like any other Soviet citizen. The bag alone was mildly conspicuous, printed with the red logo of Safeway, the British supermarket.The man was a spy. A senior KGB officer, for more than a decade he had supplied his British spymasters with a stream of priceless secrets from deep within the Soviet intelligence machine. No spy had done more to damage the KGB. The Safeway bag was a signal: to activate his escape plan to be smuggled out of Soviet Russia. So began one of the boldest and most extraordinary episodes in the history of spying.Ben Macintyre reveals a tale of espionage, betrayal and raw courage that changed the course of the Cold War forever . . .________________'The world's most important spy since the Second World War. Mercilessly gripping' Sunday Times'Extraordinary. His best book yet' John Preston, Evening Standard'A remarkable story of one man's courage' The Times, Book of the WeekBen Macintyre, Sunday Times bestseller, August 2023 Read more

A Sunday Times Paperback of the Year 2024The Sunday Times Bestseller and Waterstones Paperback of the Year 2024A Sunday Times History Book of the Year A Spectator Book of the Year The Irish Times No.1 Bestseller‘As taut as a fictional thriller’ Mail on Sunday‘Gripping, detailed and richly layered’ GuardianKILLING THATCHER is the gripping account of how the IRA came astonishingly close to killing Margaret Thatcher and to wiping out the British Cabinet – an extraordinary assassination attempt linked to the Northern Ireland Troubles and the most daring conspiracy against the Crown since the Gunpowder Plot.In this fascinating and compelling book, veteran journalist Rory Carroll retraces the road to the infamous Brighton bombing in 1984 – an incident that shaped the political landscape in the UK for decades to come. He begins with the infamous execution of Lord Mountbatten in 1979 – for which the IRA took full responsibility – before tracing the rise of Margaret Thatcher, her response to the ‘Troubles’ in Ireland and the chain of events that culminated in the hunger strikes of 1981 and the death of 10 republican prisoners, including Bobby Sands. From that moment on Thatcher became an enemy of the IRA – and the organisation swore revenge.Opening with a brilliantly-paced prologue that introduces bomber Patrick Magee in the build up to the incident, Carroll sets out to deftly explore the intrigue before and after the assassination attempt – with the story spanning three continents, from pubs and palaces, safe houses and interrogation rooms, hotels and barracks. On one side, an elite IRA team aided by a renegade priest, US-raised funds and Libya’s Qaddafi and on the other, intelligence officers, police detectives, informers and bomb disposal officers. An exciting narrative that blends true crime with political history, this is the first major book to investigate the Brighton attack.Rory Carroll's book 'Killing Thatcher' was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 2024-04-01. Read more

THE NEW LUKE CARLTON THRILLER.BBC Security Correspondent FRANK GARDNER'S thrillers are . . .'Fast, taut, tense, accurate.' FREDERICK FORSYTH'Utterly authentic.' DAILY MAIL'Enthralling, intelligent.' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Nerve-shredding.' TONY PARSONS'Heart-in-mouth.' i-NEWSPAPER'Compulsively readable.' RADIO TIMES __________________________________________The world is on high alert. Across the Strait from Taiwan, China’s armed forces appear to be readying for war. Could the People’s Republic be preparing to invade its island neighbour?Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service has a mole deep within the Chinese Communist Party leadership – an individual in possession of intel that could defuse this fast-escalating situation. A ‘collector’ is sent to meet the spy and, in an anonymous Hong Kong café, the information is handed over. But before the collector can get the data to MI6, she is overpowered, drugged and abducted by persons unknown. Is it the MSS, China’s feared state security agency? Or has another, less predictable player entered the game?As geo-political tensions rise, MI6 field operatives Luke Carlton and Jenny Li are dispatched to find the missing agent and the precious intel she carries. With the clock ticking and tip-offs taking them to shady Macau casinos, tawdry night clubs and multiple dead ends, Luke is convinced they are being deliberately strung along.Then they get the vital lead they need. It points to Taiwan – a country frantically preparing for imminent invasion. And it’s there that Luke and Jenny uncover what is really going on. . .Drawing on his years of experience reporting on global security stories and in-depth knowledge of the security services, Frank Gardner has written his most frighteningly real, unnerving and explosive thriller yet.'Grips from the very first page . . . this is thriller writing of a high order . . . Gardner steadily ratchets up the tension, peppering the narrative with nuggets of expertise to make an enthralling, intelligent read.' Adam LeBor, FINANCIAL TIMES (about Outbreak) Read more

A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2024'Gripping history that also informs the present' Sunday Times'Lively and original' The Spectator'A spectacular achievement' Dominic Sandbrook'Fast-paced, absorbing, insightful' Simon Hall'Simply superb' Kathryn Olmsted The definitive history of how the CIA became the foremost defender of America's covert global empire As World War II ended, the United States stood as the dominant power on the world stage. In 1947, to support its new global status, it created the CIA to analyse foreign intelligence. But within a few years, the Agency was engaged in other operations: bolstering pro-American governments, overthrowing nationalist leaders, and surveilling anti-imperial dissenters at home. The Cold War was an obvious reason for this transformation - but not the only one. In The CIA, celebrated British intelligence historian Hugh Wilford draws on decades of research to show the Agency as part of a larger picture: the history of Western empire. While young CIA officers imagined themselves as British imperial agents like T. E. Lawrence, successive US presidents used the covert powers of the Agency to hide overseas interventions from postcolonial foreigners and anti-imperial Americans alike. Even the CIA's post-9/11 global hunt for terrorists was haunted by the ghosts of empires past.Comprehensive, original, and gripping, The CIA is the story of the birth of a new imperial order in the shadows. It offers the most complete account yet of how America adopted unaccountable power and secrecy abroad and at home. Read more

'David Omand is exactly the man you need in a crisis' RORY STEWART From the former Director of GCHQ comes a guide to surviving crises using the latest intelligence strategiesWar, terrorism, cyberattack, climate change, the threat of AI: it has never been more important to be prepared for the crises that await us.In How to Survive a Crisis, Professor Sir David Omand draws on his experience in defence, security and intelligence, including as Director of GCHQ and UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator, to show how you can detect a looming crisis and extinguish it (or at least survive it with minimum loss).Using gripping real-world examples from Omand's storied career, and drawing lessons from historic catastrophes such as Chernobyl, 9/11, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the WannaCry ransomware cyberattack, this empowering book is filled with practical advice on how to survive the multiplying crises of the future. Not every crisis need tip into disaster, if we have invested in we are prepared for it.'This book is the instruction manual we all need' SIR ALEX YOUNGER, CHIEF OF MI6UPDATED WITH A NEW FOREWORD Read more

'An unburdening, a witness statement and a thriller all at the same time ... electrifying.'The TimesI have to assume that there is a very real chance that Putin or members of his regime will have me killed some day. If I'm killed, you will know who did it. When my enemies read this book, they will know that you know.A Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller. A true-life thriller by one of Putin's Most Wanted.In November 2009, the young lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was beaten to death by eight police officers in a freezing cell in a Moscow prison. His crime? Testifying against Russian officials who were involved in a conspiracy to steal $230 million of taxes.Red Notice is a searing exposé of the whitewash of this imprisonment and murder. The killing hasn't been investigated. It hasn't been punished. Bill Browder is still campaigning for justice for his late lawyer and friend. This is his explosive journey from the heady world of finance in New York and London in the 1990s, through battles with ruthless oligarchs in turbulent post-Soviet Union Moscow, to the shadowy heart of the Kremlin.With fraud, bribery, corruption and torture exposed at every turn, Red Notice is a shocking political roller-coaster.__________________Reads like a classic thriller, with an everyman hero alone and in danger in a hostile foreign city ... but it's all true, and it's a story that needs to be told.'Lee Child'A shocking true-life thriller.' Tom Stoppard'A riveting account... it is a powerful story and Browder tells it skilfully.' The Washington Post Read more

'Five stars. One of the best books I've read in a very, very long time' James O'Brien, LBC'This is first class' The Times | 'Excellent' Spectator'Exceptional' David McCloskey, author of The Seventh Floor'A highly accomplished novel from a new writer of great promise' Financial Times'Everything a John le Carré fan could ever wish for' Private Eye #1615'A cracker of a debut novel which really does make clear what's been going on' Bill Nighy via The Rake'Wonderful' Rory Stewart, co-host of The Rest is Politics podcast‘A marvellously confident debut, sharply observed and exceptionally well written’ Charles Cumming, author of Box 88Everyone knows about the Cambridge Spies from the Fifties, identified and broken up after passing national secrets to the Soviets for years. But no spy ring was ever unearthed at Oxford. Because one never existed? Or because it was never found…?2022: Former spy Simon Sharman is eking out a living in the private sector. When a commission to delve into the financial dealings of a mysterious Russian oligarch comes across his desk, he jumps at the chance.But as Simon investigates, worrying patterns begin to emerge. His subject made regular trips to Oxford, but for no apparent reason. There are payments from offshore accounts that suddenly just… stop.Has he found what none of his former colleagues believed possible, a Russian spy ring now nestled at the heart of the British Establishment? Or is he just another paranoid ex-spook left out in the cold, obsessed with redemption?From Oxford’s hallowed quadrangles to brush contacts on Hampstead Heath, agent-running in Vienna and mysterious meetings in Prague, A Spy Alone is a gripping international thriller and a searing portrait of modern Britain in the age of cynical populism. Perfect for readers of Charles Cumming, Mick Herron and John le Carré.Praise for A Spy Alone'Beaumont is at the forefront of the espionage genre, capturing the changing nature of intelligence: soft influence and business deals are overtaking stolen secrets; long-term insinuation is replacing Cold-War tradecraft. Brilliant' I. S. Berry, author of The Peacock and the Sparrow'The best spy novel I’ve read for years... An astonishing debut... and a brilliant portrait of how Britain allowed Russia to game our recent politics, including with Brexit' Luke Harding, author of Invasion: Russia's Bloody War and Ukraine's Fight for Survival'Wonderful. Beaumont finds a very moving place in the meditation between older ideas of patriotism and the new world. There are also eerie echoes of the Musk and Vance worldview in the villains, which give it a power and prescience' Rory Stewart, co-host of The Rest is Politics podcast'Beaumont ... catches the zeitgeist of (le Carré) .... He conveys all the world of espionage with relish, in its murky motives and surveillance techniques and the book races along and makes for a stunning debut' Maxim Jakubowski, Crime Time'A clever, thrilling spy story that brings the feel of Eric Ambler's shadowy political intrigues right into today's world' Jeremy Duns, author of Free Agent‘Tense, compelling and remarkably timely... Shades of some of the greats of spy fiction – it might even be better than Charles Cumming’ Dominick Donald, author of Breathe Read more

Been Nowhere, Done Nothing is the true story of Paul Glazebrook and his experiences joining, and serving in The Royal Green Jackets, one of the oldest and boldest Infantry Regiments in the British Army. Glazey, as he is better known, honed his infantry and covert soldiering skills all over the world from the jungles of Jamaica to the flat desolate plains of Canada. From taking part in secret operations deep inside the Bandit Country of South Armagh as well as targeted strike ops on the war torn streets of Iraq.Glazey tells his story with unflinching honesty and hysterically funny wit, giving a keen insight into the sense of humour which has kept our forces in the fight for generations. Read more

'A brilliant historical investigation that's as gripping as a Le Carré novel' Tom Burgis'Shaun Walker skilfully shows how Russia's modern-day election meddling is rooted in the subterfuge and trickery of the bad old days. This is a fascinating read.' Oliver Bullough'A gripping history critical to understanding many of Russia's influence operations today.' Catherine Belton'Sinister, clandestine and deadly - this is essential history, and it is happening now.' Simon Sebag Montefiore'A riveting spy thriller, which doubles as a secret history of Russia.' Peter PomerantsevIn 2010, two decades after the Cold War had ended, ten Russian spies were arrested in America, having hidden their true identities from their friends, neighbours and even their children. They were part of a spy programme that had begun nearly a century earlier, when the revolutionary Bolshevik government began sending Soviet citizens abroad to pose as foreign aristocrats, merchants and students. These deep-cover missions - some remarkable feats of espionage, others high-profile failures - could last for decades.Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews, as well as newly discovered archival material, Shaun Walker brings this history to life in a page-turning tour de force that goes to the heart of what became the most ambitious espionage programme in history. As Moscow continues to infiltrate illegals across the globe, The Illegals shines new light on the long arc of the Soviet experiment and its messy aftermath - and on how that hidden history shaped Russia and the West. Read more

THE USA TODAY BESTSELLER'As fast paced as a thriller' Fred Burton, Stratfor Talks' Pen and Sword Podcast'Jacobsen here presents a tour de force exploring the CIA's paramilitary activities...this excellent work feels like uncovering the tip of the iceberg ...Highly recommended for those seeking a better understanding of American foreign policy in action' Jacob Sherman, Library Journal 'A behind-the-scenes look at the most shadowy corners of the American intelligence community...Well-sourced and well-paced, this book is full of surprises' Kirkus'Annie Jacobsen takes us inside the darkest and most morally ambiguous corner of our government, where politicians ask brave men and women to kill-up close and personal-on America's behalf' Garrett M. Graff, author of Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself - While the Rest of us Die'This is a first rate book on the CIA, its paramilitary armies, operators, and assassins' New York Journal of Books'Having already demonstrated her remarkable aptitude for unearthing government secrets in books like Area 51 (2011) and The Pentagon's Brain (2015), Jacobsen pulls back the curtain on the history of covert warfare and state sanctioned assassinations from WWII to the present...Jacobsen's work revealing a poorly understood but essential slice of warfare history belongs in every library collection' BooklistThe definitive, character-driven history of CIA covert operations and U.S. government-sponsored assassinations, from the author of the Pulizter Prize finalist The Pentagon's BrainSince 1947, domestic and foreign assassinations have been executed under the C IA-led covert action operations team. Before that time, responsibility for taking out America's enemies abroad was even more shrouded in mystery. Despite Hollywood notions of last-minute rogue-operations and external secret hires, covert action is actually a cog in a colossal foreign policy machine, moving through, among others, the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the House and Senate Select Committees. At the end of the day, it is the President, not the C IA, who is singularly in charge.For the first time, Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen takes us deep inside this top-secret history. With unparalleled access to former operatives, ambassadors, and even past directors of the Secret Service and CIA operations, Jacobsen reveals the inner workings of these teams, and just how far a U.S. president may go, covertly but lawfully, to pursue the nation's interests. Read more

Now a major BBC comedy-drama starring Ben Whishaw. The multi-million copy bestseller and Book of the Year at The National Book Awards.‘Painfully funny. The pain and the funniness somehow add up to something entirely good, entirely noble and entirely loveable.' - Stephen FryWelcome to the life of a junior doctor: 97-hour weeks, life and death decisions, a constant tsunami of bodily fluids, and the hospital parking meter earns more than you.Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends, Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred account of his time on the NHS front line. Hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking, this diary is everything you wanted to know – and more than a few things you didn't – about life on and off the hospital ward.Sunday Times Number One Bestseller for over eight months and winner of a record FOUR National Book Awards: Book of the Year, Non-Fiction Book of the Year, New Writer of the Year and Zoe Ball Book Club Book of the Year.This edition includes extra diary entries and an afterword by the author. Read more

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER'Extraordinary... enthralling. We may think we have read all we need to about the Second World War's secret war, but despite an army of histories and fine biographies, Latour's account is the only first-person memoir we have by a female agent within it. It's also almost certainly the last. A darkly moving, marvellously detailed book.' -Telegraph, 5 STARS'Vivid, honest, inspiring and sometimes shocking, Pippa Latour's memoir shows how right the SOE were to assess her as having '"tons of guts"' -CLARE MULLEY, author of Agent Zo'A rare glimpse into the life of the last surviving SOE agent to have seen action behind enemy lines in France. Pippa's story is one of immense courage and personal sacrifice... a truly gripping and remarkable wartime service.' -HELEN FRY, author of Women in Intelligence'Vivid and vibrant. Pippa's words echo with resonance across the pages, punctuated with historical context and fact.' -KATE VIGURS, author of Mission France'Compulsively readable... A brilliant book.' -Mail on Sunday***'You know you can change your mind, don't you? Even now. Even when you are halfway across the English Channel. Any time before you jump.''Yes, I know,' I quickly reassured her, 'and I won't.'In June 1940, a covert new force - the Special Operations Executive (SOE) - was set up to wage a secret war. Its agents were tasked with sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines, and over the course of the next five years, 470 special agents would be sent into France. Only 26 female SOE agents would return. None before have told their story in their own words.This is the astounding true story of Phyllis "Pippa" Latour, the last surviving SOE agent. Born in 1921, Pippa's was an unusual childhood, followed by an even more extraordinary early adult life as she was parachuted into France aged 23. Incredibly brave, she travelled around the rural French countryside, concealing her codes in a hair tie and her Morse key underneath her bicycle seat, and sending crucial information back to Britain in the lead-up to D-Day. More than once she came frighteningly close to being discovered.For decades, Pippa told no one - not even her family - of her incredible feats. Now for the first time, her story can be told in full.***Perfect for fans of A Woman of No Importance and Women in Intelligence Read more

THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017SUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLERWhen he receives an invitation to deliver a lecture in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, international lawyer Philippe Sands begins a journey on the trail of his family's secret history. In doing so, he uncovers an astonishing series of coincidences that lead him halfway across the world, to the origins of international law at the Nuremberg trial. Interweaving the stories of the two Nuremberg prosecutors (Hersch Lauterpacht and Rafael Lemkin) who invented the crimes or genocide and crimes against humanity, the Nazi governor responsible for the murder of thousands in and around Lviv (Hans Frank), and incredible acts of wartime bravery, EAST WEST STREET is an unforgettable blend of memoir and historical detective story, and a powerful meditation on the way memory, crime and guilt leave scars across generations.* * * * * 'A monumental achievement: profoundly personal, told with love, anger and great precision' John le Carré'One of the most gripping and powerful books imaginable' SUNDAY TIMESWinner:Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fictionJQ-Wingate Literary PrizeHay Festival Medal for Prose Read more

On the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, Peter Taylor tells for the first time the gripping story of Operation Chiffon, the top-secret intelligence operation that helped bring peace to Ireland.'A gripping exploration of how MI5 and MI6 worked for a ceasefire with the IRA – and how one meeting changed everything' Telegraph'An extraordinary story . . . A true tale of espionage' The TimesApril 1998: the Good Friday Agreement is signed, ending decades of violence and bloodshed in Northern Ireland. The process of getting the IRA to end its so-called 'armed struggle' was always the prerequisiteof the search for peace. It was Operation Chiffon that finally helped make it possible.Operation Chiffon takes us inside the top-secret intelligence operation whose roots go back to the bloodiest years of the conflict in the early 1970s, involving officers from MI6 and, later in the 1990s, MI5. The remarkable story, which has remained hidden for forty years, is now revealed by legendary BBC journalist Peter Taylor with unique access to the officers involved. Drawing on exclusive interviews and Taylor's fifty years of covering the conflict, the book narrates in first-hand detail how those involved risked their careers – and their lives – to help secure the fragile peace that exists today.Taylorvividly brings this covert operation to life and in the process chronicles the history of Sinn Féin, rising from obscurity in the early days of the Troubles to becoming the largest political party in Ireland today. It is a story fraught with uncertainty and danger that, as Brexit risks destabilising what was achieved in the Good Friday Agreement twenty-five years ago, is more important than ever to remember. Read more

'A METICULOUS HISTORY THAT READS LIKE A THRILLER' BEN MACINTYRE, TEN BEST BOOKS TO READ ABOUT WORLD WAR II An astounding story of heroism, spycraft, resistance and personal triumph over shocking adversity. 'A rousing tale of derring-do' THE TIMES * 'Riveting' MICK HERRON * 'Superb' IRISH TIMES THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERIn September 1941, a young American woman strides up the steps of a hotel in Lyon, Vichy France. Her papers say she is a journalist. Her wooden leg is disguised by a determined gait and a distracting beauty. She is there to spark the resistance.By 1942 Virginia Hall was the Gestapo's most urgent target, having infiltrated Vichy command, trained civilians in guerrilla warfare and sprung soldiers from Nazi prison camps. The first woman to go undercover for British SOE, her intelligence changed the course of the war - but her fight was still not over. This is a spy history like no other, telling the story of the hunting accident that disabled her, the discrimination she fought and the secret life that helped her triumph over shocking adversity.'A cracking story about an extraordinarily brave woman' TELEGRAPH'Gripping ... superb ... a rounded portrait of a complicated, resourceful, determined and above all brave woman' IRISH TIMESWINNER of the PLUTARCH AWARD FOR BEST BIOGRAPHY Read more

THE EXPLOSIVE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'A bombshell.' Daily Mail'Damning, terrifying and enraging.' The SpectatorHouse of Trump, House of Putin offers the first comprehensive investigation into the decades-long relationship among Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia that ultimately helped win Trump the White House. It is a chilling story that begins in the 1970s, when Trump made his first splash in the booming, money-drenched world of New York real estate, and ends with Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States. That moment was the culmination of Vladimir Putin’s long mission to undermine Western democracy, a mission that he and his hand-selected group of oligarchs and associates had ensnared Trump in over more than two decades of shady business associations.As Unger traces Donald Trump's sordid ascent from foundering real estate tycoon to leader of the free world, House of Trump, House of Putin, reveals the deep-rooted alliance between the highest echelons of American political operatives and the biggest players in the frightening underworld of the Russian Mafia. Examining Russia's phoenixlike rise from the ashes of the post-Cold War Soviet Union, Unger reveals its ceaseless covert efforts to retaliate against the West and reclaim its status as a global superpower, and how such ambitions came to compromise the president.Without Trump, Russia would have lacked a key component in its attempts to return to imperial greatness. Without Russia, Trump would not be in the White House. This essential book is crucial to understanding the real powers at play in the shadows of today’s world. Read more

'Compulsively readable . . . thrilling' – Sunday Telegraph'Brings alive a glamorous, swashbuckling heroine' – Sunday TimesIn June 1952, a woman was murdered by an obsessive colleague in a hotel in South Kensington. Her name was Christine Granville – Churchill's favourite spy. That she died young was perhaps unsurprising. That she had survived the Second World War was remarkable.The daughter of a feckless Polish aristocrat and his wealthy Jewish wife, Christine fled to Britain on the outbreak of war and persuaded MI6 to make her their first female recruit. She took on mission after mission, skiing into occupied Poland, serving in Egypt and later parachuting into occupied France.Her quick wit, courage and determination won her release from arrest more than once, and she saved the lives of several fellow officers, including one of her many lovers just hours before he was due to be executed by the Gestapo.Of more strategic importance, the intelligence she smuggled to Britain, and her service in France, including single-handedly securing the defection of an entire Nazi German garrison, was a significant contribution to the Allied war effort. She was awarded the George Medal, the OBE and the Croix de Guerre.In The Spy Who Loved Mulley has brought Christine vividly to life – a complex, courageous and very effective special agent who deserves to be better remembered. Read more

'Everything about this story is astounding' Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times"Trinity" was the codename for the test explosion of the atomic bomb in New Mexico on 16 July 1945. Trinity is now also the extraordinary story of the bomb's metaphorical father, Rudolf Peierls; his intellectual son, the atomic spy, Klaus Fuchs, and the ghosts of the security services in Britain, the USA and USSR.Against the background of pre-war Nazi Germany, the Second World War and the following Cold War, the book traces how Peierls brought Fuchs into his family and his laboratory, only to be betrayed. It describes in unprecedented detail how Fuchs became a spy, his motivations and the information he passed to his Soviet contacts, both in the UK and after he went with Peierls to join the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos in 1944. Frank Close is himself a distinguished nuclear physicist: uniquely, the book explains the science as well as the spying.Fuchs returned to Britain in August 1946 still undetected and became central to the UK's independent effort to develop nuclear weapons. Close describes the febrile atmosphere at Harwell, the nuclear physics laboratory near Oxford, where many of the key players were quartered, and the charged relationships which developed there. He uncovers fresh evidence about the role of the crucial VENONA signals decryptions, and shows how, despite mistakes made by both MI5 and the FBI, the net gradually closed around Fuchs, building an intolerable pressure which finally cracked him.The Soviet Union exploded its first nuclear device in August 1949, far earlier than the US or UK expected. In 1951, the US Congressional Committee on Atomic Espionage concluded, 'Fuchs alone has influenced the safety of more people and accomplished greater damage than any other spy not only in the history of the United States, but in the history of nations'. This book is the most comprehensive account yet published of these events, and of the tragic figure at their centre. Read more

From the former director of GCHQ, learn the methodology used by British intelligence agencies to reach judgements, establish the right level of confidence and act decisively.Full of revealing examples from a storied career, including key briefings with Prime Ministers and strategies used in conflicts from the Cold War to the present, in How Spies Think Professor Sir David Omand arms us with the tools to sort fact from fiction.And shows us how to use real intelligence every day.*****'One of the best books ever written about intelligence analysis and its long-term lessons' Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5'An invaluable guide to avoiding self-deception and fake news' Melanie Phillips, The TimesWINNER OF THE NEAVE BOOK PRIZE 2022LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2021 Read more

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025: 'A masterfully written biography... inspiring and powerful' Agent Zo tells the incredible true story of Elżbieta Zawacka, the WW2 resistance fighter known as 'Zo'. The only woman to reach London from Warsaw during the Second World War as an emissary of the Polish Home Army command, Zo undertook two missions in the capital before secret Special Operations Executive training in the British countryside. As the only female member of the Polish elite Special Forces - the SOE-affiliated 'Silent Unseen' - Zo became the only woman to parachute from Britain to Nazi German-occupied Poland. There, whilst being hunted by the Gestapo (who arrested her entire family), she played a key role in the Warsaw Uprising and ultimately in the liberation of Poland. After the war, Zo was demobbed as one of the most highly decorated women in Polish history. Yet the Soviet-backed post-war Communist regime not only imprisoned her but ensured that her remarkable story remained hidden for over forty years.Now, through new archival research and exclusive interviews with people who knew and fought alongside Zo, Clare Mulley brings this forgotten hero back to life, transforming the way we see female agency in the Second World War. Read more