Best book on MI6/SIS?

Number24

I'm reading "Defence of the realm" now, the official history of MI5. There is a lot of ground to cover and a lot of pages to read, but I find it interesting. But it also makes me curious about what has happened in the MI6/SIS. As far as I know there isn't an official history of SIS, or am I wrong? What is in your oppinion the best non-fiction book on the British foreign inteligence service?

Mark Hazard

Two books I have in my collection are:

MI6 by Rupert Allason as "Nigel West" (1983), and

MI6 - Fifty Years of Special Operations by Stephen Dorril (2000)

neither of which I have yet got around to reading - roll on retirement.

Number24

Thanks. It's a shame SIS didn't let a historian write their official history last year for the aniversary, like MI5 did. They could perhaps stop at the end of the cold war for security reasons, but it would be a very interesting book.

The Domino Effect

There is apparently an official history of MI6 due to be published this year. Unfortunately, however, it only goes as far as 1949. It should still be interesting reading and we can just hope that there will eventually (or at least in our lifetimes!) be a follow-up volume. The author is Queen's University Belfast professor of history, Keith Jeffrey, but I haven't been able to find an exact publication date or even a title. Perhaps they're secret!

Number24

Exiting news! I agree they should be able to cover more recent times - ideally up to 1991.
At least I doubt there are many secrets from the 70's that must be kept for operational reasons today. Then again, the russians had active agents in the UK in the early 70's who were recruited at university in the late 30's ....