M: M15's First Spymaster

by Andrew Cook

Overview

The amazing true story of the real “M”, William Melville, MI5’s
founding father and the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s character
in James Bond. Melville was one of the most influential counterespionage
figures of the twentieth century. From a tiny outfit
based in Victoria Street, London, the counter-intelligence organization
that Melville lobbied the Government to create is today
a household name and one of the world’s leading intelligence
agencies.

 

He was perfect for the job, a velvet-gloved tough guy who
had run Scotland Yard’s Special Branch and whose career had
already taken in some of London’s great crime dramas including
the Jack the Ripper investigations, countering Irish Republican
terrorism, assassination attempts on Queen Victoria and anarchist
bomb plots. Now, with help of recently declassified records,
family material and documents that have still not officially seen
the light of day, the story of his Secret Service career – including
the breaking of German spy rings prior to the outbreak of World
War I—can finally be told.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780752439495
Publisher:	Tempus Publishing, Limited
Publication date:	04/01/2007
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.97(d)

About the Author

Andrew Cook worked for many years as a foreign affairs and defense specialist, and the contacts he made enabled him to navigate and gain access to classified intelligence services archives. He is only the fifth historian to be given special permission under the 1992 “Waldegrave Initiative” by the Cabinet Office to examine closed MI6 documents that will never be released. He is author of critically acclaimed Ace of Spies: The True Story of Sidney Reilly, To Kill Rasputin and Prince Eddy, all published by Tempus. He is a regular contributor
on espionage history to The Guardian, The Times and History Today.