The Defence of the Realm

Jan 12, 2025 7:37 AM

Author:Christopher Andrew

'Sensationally good ... A riveting story, the real-life spooks and spies far more compelling than anything you will see on the screen ... history doesn't come more fascinating than this' Evening Standard

For over 100 years, the agents of MI5 have defended Britain against enemy subversion. Their work has remained shrouded in secrecy - until now.

This first-ever authorized account reveals the British Security Service as never before: its inner workings, its clandestine operations, its failures and its triumphs.

'Definitive and fascinating ... whether reporting on Hitler in the 1930s, the Double-Cross System of the second world war, Zionist terrorism, the atom spies, the Cambridge spies, the so-called Wilson plot or the 1988 shooting of the IRA bombers in Gibraltar, this book is essential reading' Alan Judd, Spectator

'The British Secret Service has opened its archives - and even 'insiders' may be in for a surprise ... magisterial ... extremely readable' Oleg Gordievsky, The Times

'Compelling ... a feast' Max Hastings, Sunday Times

'A superb account ... He has captured every important detail of the Service ... unlikely to be surpassed for another 100 years' Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph

Reviews

As close as anyone will get to the truth

—— Craig Brown , Mail on Sunday

A rare, authoritative and welcome book

—— The Scotsman

richly textured and judicious, and I doubt it will ever be bettered

—— Sunday Telegraph

Gripping gloriously gossipy beautifully detailed, fair but never fawning - arguably the best royal biography of recent years (there has, of course, been competition...)

—— Gyles Brandreth , The Telegraph

Comprehensive ... Darwin's erudition allows him to skirt around the narrow orthodoxies of apologist v critic and provide an insightful account of Britain's unlikely period of global hegemony

—— Sunday Times

John Darwin's Unfinished Empire surpasses even his own previous work to give an unmatched overview of imperial Britain's rise and fall

—— Stephen Howe , Independent BOOKS OF THE YEAR

Uglow is being modest: her long and leisurely stroll through 2.000 years of British gardening is dense with the foliage of historical research, and highly decorated with literary references and colourful anecdotes

—— Independent on Sunday

Enthralling...an elegant and witty gem

—— Herald

In this pacey retelling of a classic love story, Kate Williams has created a sparkling life worthy of Emma herself. A new biography for a new generation

—— Stella Tillyard, author of A Royal Affair

Popular history at its best

—— David Liss, author of A Spectacle of Corruption

Every intricate detail is laid out, and Kate Williams' writing is so immediate, you feel all but transported...

—— Birmingham Post

From Soho tart to glamour model, diplomatic wife in Naples to the most famous extra-marital passion in UK history: Emma Hamilton's amazing tale is hardly unfamiliar. Williams tells it shrewdly and well, with access to recently discovered letters and a sharp contemporary spin. In her skilled hands, Lord Nelson's lover, for all her "charisma, intelligence and charm" falls foul both of ingrained misogyny and a fledgling culture that both gave her stardom and exacted a fearsome price.

—— The Independent

Lively, sympathetic and meticulously researched

—— Sunday Telegraph

Williams account is both balanced and evocative...[Emma Hamilton's] ruthless but romantic pursuit of celebrity is so close to our own time that the story barely needs contemporary parallels

—— Sunday Times

Divertingly and instructively illuminates a time and culture both far away and intriguingly like our own, and resurrects a woman whose mingled vulnerability and resilience - to say nothing of her glamour - still have the power to fascinate

—— Washington Post

The first self-made superstar, the first manipulative media celebrity, dazzling Europe with her style and beauty as muse to artists and mistress to Nelson ... Emma famously gets her comeuppance, and her headlong flight to romantic destruction is told with novelistic dash

—— The Times

Rigorous and relevant

—— TLS 'Books of the Year'

Pries open the most astounding archives to uncover what our recent ancestors tried to hide

—— Sunday Times 'Books of the Year'

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