The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 - Softcover

"Absolutely fascinating...a sweeping and highly readable account of a century of British intelligence. -"Washington Times""This unique publication is definitive and fascinating. Definitive because, after decades of ill-informed or partial accounts this book fully defines and describes its subject; no future writer can ignore it. Fascinating because the fluent clarity of Andrew's narrative, his eye for colourful individual detail and the sheer interest of his subjects...this book is essential reading for anyone with even the slightest interest in intelligence in the modern period." - Alan Judd, "Spectator ""A scholarly and hugely entertaining account...often enthralling...Professor Andrew is an entertaining and authoritative guide through the labyrinth of secret files, with an infectious fascination for the game of counter-espionage...an important part of Andrew's achievement is to narrate with clarity an incredibly complex story in which bizarre and improbable reality often outruns the most rococo fabrications of the spy novelist...the reader is left in no doubt that the defence of the realm is being vigorously conducted by the secret state with all the extraordinary powers at its command." - Robert McCrum, "Observer ""MI5 is the first major security or intelligence service in the world to give a historian free range of its records--nearly 400,000 paper files, some with many volumes, say Christopher Andrew with a touch of exhaustion...it has been well worth the effort. "The Defence of the Realm "throws new light on an important area of the running of the country, analysing the changing threats to national security over the 100 years and discussing the appropriateness or otherwise of the service's response. But just as interestingly, the book gets inside the culture of this secret service, showing how attitudes have changed with those changing threats; how woman have worked their way from the fringes to the heart of the organisation and how a se