How Spies Think

Oct 10, 2024 3:23 AM

Author:David Omand,David Omand

How Spies Think

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the former director of GCHQ, learn the methodology used by the British intelligence agencies to reach judgements, establish the right level of confidence and act decisively.

Intelligence officers discern the truth. They gather information - often contradictory or incomplete - and, with it, they build the most accurate possible image of the world. With the stakes at their absolute highest, they must then decide what to do.

In everyday life, you are faced with contradictory, incomplete information, too. Reading the news on social media, figuring out the next step in your career, or trying to discover if gossip about a friend is legitimate, you are building an image of the world and making decisions about it.

Looking through the eyes of one of Britain's most senior ex-intelligence officers, Professor Sir David Omand, How Spies Think shows how the big decisions in your life will be easier to make when you apply the same frameworks used by British intelligence. Full of revealing examples from his storied career, including key briefings with Prime Ministers from Thatcher to Blair, and conflicts from the Falklands to Afghanistan, Professor 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. Brilliant, lucid and thought-provoking' Christopher Andrew, author of The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5

Reviews

A readable kiss-and-tell study . . . Tough finds that higher education, which has the potential to increase upward mobility, has become an obstacle that perpetuates social rigidity. The poor remain poor and the rich get richer . . . this study is laced with deep anger.

—— Times Higher Education

Humanizes the process of higher education . . . Fascinating stories about efforts to remediate class disparities in higher education

—— New Yorker

[Tough] writes movingly about students who are trying to navigate the confounding, expensive, and intimidating process of getting into and staying in college.

—— WIRED

Important . . . Among his book's many vital contributions are its portraits of schools and programs that model a better way.

—— New York Times

Paul Tough is a beautiful reporter and writer and a deeply moral guide to understanding the situation of children in our heartless meritocracy . . . A great book that should start a necessary conversation.

—— George Packer, author of THE UNWINDING

A stunning piece of work . . . A completely absorbing narrative with some very surprising, trenchant analysis . . . A devastating report card on the American dream. It's just a very special book.

—— Michael Pollen, author of HOW TO CHANGE YOUR MIND

A deeply reported and damning portrait of fraying American social mobility . . . A clear-eyed portrait of what a stacked game it really is.

—— Quartz

Gorgeously reported. Vividly written. Utterly lucid. Paul Tough jumps skilfully between deeply engaging personal narratives and the bigger truths of higher education. The way he tells the stories of these students, it's impossible not to care about them and get angry on their behalf.

—— Ira Glass, host of NPR'S THIS AMERICAN LIFE

A comprehensive, moving account of the inequalities that block many poor, minority and first-generation students from realizing the benefits of a college education.

—— Forbes

[Tough's] urgent account combines cogent data and artful storytelling to show how higher education has veered from its meritocratic ideals to exacerbate society's inequality.

—— Editors' Choice , New York Times Book Review

Indelible and extraordinary, a powerful reckoning with just how far we’ve allowed reality to drift from our ideals. It’s difficult to overstate the importance of higher education to the present moment.

—— Tara Westover, New York Times Book Review

In this fascinating study, education journalist Tough argues persuasively that access to an elite college education, which in the US is popularly believed to be a meritocratically distributed social equalizer, is in fact distributed in ways that reinforce existing economic divisions . . . This well-written and persuasive book is likely to make a splash.

—— Publishers Weekly

The Panic Years made me laugh and it made me cry. There’s a rare tenderness to this book that comes from not having felt seen before. It’s for our generation, and Nell gets it. She understands and respects us.

—— Rhiannon Cosslett

A wonderful, candid memoir about the personal and political implications of motherhood, full of humour and fizzing prose. I loved it.

—— Luiza Sauma, author of Flesh and Bone and Everything You Ever Wanted

For someone older, in a different set of panic years altogether, part of the pleasure of this book lies in reminiscence, reflecting and reframing. But it’s also galvanising, engaging and enraging. The personal is political, philosophical, emotional, and very funny. I resisted the urge to highlight everything that made me laugh, or think, or fired me up, because the whole thing would have been one big neon block
—— Jenny Landreth

Breathtakingly good

—— Lauren Bravo

Informs, educates, entertains... This book will resonate with so many readers.

—— Red's top picks of 2020

Brilliant

—— Grazia

A must-read... sharp, funny, it chronicles all of the big decisions a woman is expected to make between the ages of 25-40: where to live, if they should marry, what to do with one's career. And that other biggie: to have a baby or not.

—— Culture Whisper

Ab-definingly funny, The Panic Years captures the female experience perfectly. Discussing all of the large, looming decisions women have to make between their late 20s and early 40s, this is a must-read.

—— ES Magazine

Offers advice and feminist learnings on how to survive when it feels like everyone around you is becoming a parent.

—— Cosmopolitan

Wise, perceptive and refreshingly open...a memoir that feels inherently personal to womanhood and what being a woman means.

—— Culturefly

[An] insightful memoir

—— Joanne Finney , Good Housekeeping

Bracingly honest...big-hearted... [and] page-turningly compelling

—— Holly Williams , Observer

Some Body To Love is an honest and thoughtful memoir that touches on difficult contemporary topics . . . Incredibly moving and very, very powerfu

—— Monocle

A powerful treatise on pain and love, this is an honest, moving and authentic examination of the end of a relationship, and the way our lives can fracture and recover from sudden, seismic shifts. Heminsley's writing is sharply resonant - you don't have to share her experiences to be struck by her observations about letting go with love, and how we can find strength in self-love too

—— SheerLuxe, *Books of the Year*

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