Six

Paperback edition of the first part of acclaimed author Michael Smith’s epic, completely unauthorised history of Britain’s external intelligence community.

Six tells the complete story of the service’s birth and early years, including the tragic, untold tale of what happened to Britain’s extensive networks in Soviet Russia between the wars. It reveals how British spies helped murder Rasputin, and plotted to kill Lenin and Trotsky. It shows how they battled German saboteurs in New York to protect Atlantic shipping. It demonstrates the development of what would come in the novels of le Carré to be called ‘tradecraft’ and the great personal risk officers and their agents took, far from home and unprotected.

What really shines through is the bravery and ingenuity of these extraordinary men and women, operating only a heartbeat from discovery and death.

Six uses hundreds of previously unreleased files and interviews to show how one of the world’s most secretive of secret agencies originated and developed into something like the MI6 we know today.