The MI5 Archive

'Contains real treasure' The Times 'Shines a light on MI5’s areas of focus during some of the biggest political events of the 20th century ... includes previously unpublished files' Telegraph The definitive visual record of the clandestine work carried out by the British Security Service, MI5, from its origins to the modern day. ‘The book is magnificent: a collection of unequalled and evocative material from the true archives of the Security Service … Here is a Special Branch report from 1936 discussing one Eric Blair, alias George Orwell, who may or may not be a threat to the public good. Here is a photoset documenting the cache excavation of one Karel Richter, a Nazi spy who parachuted into Britain in 1941 with a radio crystal, £300 and a loaded pistol. … Everything is familiar, everything is strange, and this is where authors Mark Dunton and Stephen Twigge come to the fore, weaving elegant history and exposition to help us make sense of the marginalia – to give us knowledge rather than just data; intelligence, rather than information.’ Nick Harkaway, from his Foreword Regnum Defende: Defend the Realm. MI5, the intelligence agency responsible for protecting the UK against threats to national security, has acted under this motto since it was founded in 1909. This has involved the management of secrets over the decades: secrets for which vast swathes of information are now declassified. Detailing uprisings, executions and double agents, The MI5 Archive presents a window into the world of spycraft that has kept British democracy safe. Within you will find source material on the Siege of Sidney Street, the Cambridge Spy Ring and the Profumo Affair, and never-before-published imagery prepared exclusively for this book. From interrogations to surveillance logs, coded messages to intercepted phone calls, The MI5 Archive charts the clandestine activities of MI5 from its inception to the present day.

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