The Art of Betrayal: Life and Death in the British Secret Service

The problem with real spy stories is that spies tell so many lies, you end up wondering what s true and what s not The first half of this book covers mostly the 1950 s and 1960 s, during which time there was the major disaster of Kim Philby s defection to the USSR and the realisation that he had betrayed Britain for decades This led to decades of investigations of possible double agents with the British intelligence services mostly carried out by the spies on their very own colleagues The dread [...]

This was a fairly good bookI had no idea the Brits were so involved in the question of WMD in IraqThe US media prefers to call george jr a liar.He may have been an idiot, but I don t think he liedp382 the absence of evidence is not absence of evidence footnote 96 from press briefing feb 2002That doesn t make senseI think I remember it as the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence Proves once again that now days, publishers don t edit booksand even the writer seems not to have read the fi [...]

This was very enjoyable to read and I learned a lot of new things The book rattles along and charts the period from the end of the second world war through to the present Stuffed full of interesting anecdotes about people and an organisation that is by turns impressive and then absurd I hadn t realised, for instance, the extent of British involvement in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation Apparently the CIA weren t allowed to send personnel in, but the book strongly implies MI6 were very bu [...]

Very interesting history of the spy game in the U.K And by extension the US after WWII Well written, sometime complex especially in the sections of Afghanistan but the story of the WMD and the push to war with Iraq were fascinating and very telling I learned a lot that I had not known.

The exciting title appears to belong to some other book This book was rambling, disjointed, and not very interesting.

very informative

Fascinating story about the British spy agencies, MI 5 and MI 6, with insights into the US CIA This is the stuff that spy novels attempt to bring to life In fact some of the novelists actually were involved in these secret spy agencies Doesn t do a lot to encourage one to think that these services are always right in their info and assessments In fact they are frequently way off Nonetheless this is a very interesting book.

They say that truth is often stranger than fiction and this book that I have given a 5 star rating reads very fluently and tells the real story of British secret service agents as they engage in the art of espionage across the globe True heroes and heroines emerge as you quickly flutter through the pages From SIS s early war history through to the heavy espionage focus against the Soviets during the Cold War through to the closer to present military escapades in Afghanistan and Iraq, spies are a [...]

Corera is the BBC s Security Correspondent and is therefore well placed to bring this unofficial history of Mi6 to life with a speedy narrative flare.The book is mainly focussed on the post WWII era and is split into chapters of geographic and thematic significance for the service the intrigue of post war Vienna, Kim Philby the Gang of 5 , Daphne Park battling Communism and colonial decline in the Congo, double agents and counter intelligence in Moscow Washington, honey traps in London, the Russ [...]

I have often noticed that the Brits and the Yanks are twins separated at birth We have Reagan, they have Thatcher We have Clinton, they have Blair Then we have Bush and they have Blair Did Tony change his stripes, or did he just express his feminine side with Bill and his alpha male with George W Now we have Obama and they have Gordon somebody Culturally, we share a lot I personally can t stomach Dr Who, though I have tried, but I love Downton Abbey and I first became hooked on House of Cards an [...]

This book fed my fascination with MI 5 and MI 6, and I enjoyed the interweaving of LeCarre, Fleming and Greene with the reality of the spy world.Quotes Iraq was the lowest moment for MI6 since the betrayal of Kim Philby Its intelligence turned out to be wrong and the aftermath of the war a disaster The myth came ceasing against reality as MI6 s intelligence, on which a case for war was built, was shown to be dud A divide had emerged int he culture of MI6, just as it had among their American coun [...]

An exciting account of over a half century of British clandestine operations including coups like Penskovsky and Gordievsky, debacles like Philby, Blake and Vasall and of course, Iraq and the rest of the life of spycraft in the country a riveting narrative of the Congo tragedy, the Afghan jihad, of how came about the wholly unnecessary Second Iraq War whose blowback is still being faced The strength of this book lies in showing how an unholy closeness to the ruling class and a desire to find inf [...]

A very interesting survey of British Intelligence primarily MI6 from the end of WWII up to the WMD fiasco leading to the invasion of Iraq In Corera s view the intelligence community evolved over time from an elite club of men with cowboy tendencies and too much trust in their own to another arm of government bureaucracy The book describes plenty of intrigue, plenty of mistakes and quite an assortment of characters traitors, defectors, double agents, the dull, the cunning and the fascinating Daph [...]

Interesting history of the MI6 history in mostly the second half of the 20th century and the cold war, or at least what is known and has not conveniently burnt down It turns sort of blase toward the end of the book and the description of the Iraq war I am afraid this history mostly paints a picture of incompetence with a brave face on The most interesting parts are the traitors to or for the service.

This book is a very readable summary of the main episodes of SIS post war history that are in the public domain Some parts of it are based on new information such as Golitsyn s unpublished memoir However, anyone looking for a new revelation about SIS will be disappointed The parts about Philby, Penkovsky, Golitsyn and Gordievsky are well trodden ground, even if the material is well organised and presented.

I started reading this as I was initially intrigued by SIS s Cold War spying, but soon found it somewhat dry and uninteresting, perhaps largely because it wasn t easy to relate to However fast forward to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and that was much interesting to read, as was all that followed.I thought the writing style was heavy and uneven in places it feels thorough though, clearly very well researched.

Enough depth but not too much Interesting history of MI6 from post WW2 to present day Loved some of the little throwaways watchers used to knit sweaters with patterns to indicate troop movements on trains As always, an interesting view of the special relationship between the US and the UK And, of course, personally interesting since one of the main characters used to be a downstairs neighbor in London.

Interesting look at the history of MI6 from post WWII through the present day I enjoyed the first 7 of 10 chapters the most as they focused on the Cold War years which is when 80 s I read a ton of spy novels The last 3 chapters dealt with Afghanistan and the post 9 11 years and while much topical, they were rather depressing.

Solid account of the history of the British secret services from the post war period to the present day The episodic form makes the linear time scale difficult to follow at times, but all the major characters are covered, and there is also frequent reference to the better known fictional espionage works and writers.

Long, sprawling history of MI6 Rather than an exciting recounting of multiple spy adventures, this book drills down into a little too much detail of five or six incidents Less would have been I also winder how accurate it s stories are, especially the 9 11 rehash Epilogue of long What s the Secret Service for in 2015 handwringing.

Good, but not indispensable account of the doings of the British Secret Service It theads some well known paths, Burgess Maclean Philby al , some unknown at least to me the Congo , but where it really gets going is the contemporary stuff, from The Russo Afghan War to the present That coherent account makes for a thougthprovoking read.

If you like spy novels, I think you ll like this Gives the real scoop on espionage from the early 1900 s to Iraq and Afghanistan Focuses on MI6, but also has a lot information on the CIA Very well referenced.

Relevancy supreme A superb walking tour through the intimate depths of espionage.A satisfying read for those interested in the historical and cultural mechanisms of clandestine warfare.If you have the appetite, this is not to be missed

After reading Art of Betrayal don t think the British and American intelligence services were the only major players screwing up Try The World Was Going Our Way by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin to get a KGB perspective.

This is a fascinating book, filled with names, places, dates and events that illustrate and illuminate a lot about British Secret Service activities and that of some other agencies during the Cold War and after it.

Fantastic research, brilliant insight, and exhaustive detail I find it refreshing to learn the lessons from so much paranoia, mistrust, betrayal, and the inner workings of how to lie, as well as recruit using human weaknesses.

Very informative book but a bit dry to read Took me several months to finish it, especially because the chapters were so long But extremely interesting information, so I recommend to anyone interested in spy history and how it shaped events today.

Excellent, well written, and very readable.

Awesome

They say that fact is stranger than fiction and here fact and fiction mirror each other Fascinating read with every chapter reading like a Le Carre novella If you like your spies this is for you.