Here is the blurb from the dust jacket:
A copy of the manuscript of this book was stolen by a senior M15 officer in an attempt to stop its being published. On October 12, 1982, the High Court of Justice of Great Britain issued an injunction against the publication of this book or any part of it. As in the cases of Soviet moles high up in British government -- Burgess, Maclean, Philby, Blunt - the barn door was closed too late. The American publisher had already handcarried a copy of the manuscript from London to New York a month earlier.
In his introduction to the American edition of The Circus, the author refers to "this final version" as "the most detailed account Of M15's work ever published" and "for those who find it closer to fiction than fact, they have M15's word for it that it is indeed all too terribly true." For this book details the failures of British intelligence to detect the Soviet spies high up in it own ranks, a failure that continues to this date. Case by case, The Circus shows how the postwar intelligence services of Britain were riddled with undetected Soviet agents who compromised Western secrets that gave the Soviet Union advantages worth billions of dollars and years of time and may have contributed markedly to the present imbalance of military strength that has given the Soviets the lead in nuclear and more advanced armaments. As you read "Entrapment," "Betrayal," "Penetration," and the two final chapters of The Circus, you will find yourself incredibly excited and possibly alarmed at* the incompetence of intelligence bureaucrats who have failed again and again to find the spies in their own ranks.
This book answers such questions as: Was the former Director-General of the Security service, Sir Roger Hollis, a traitor? Why -was it that in more than thirty years only one KGB illegal was ever found in England by M15? Who was the defector whose memory of files in Moscow led to the identification of more than a dozen Russian spies in the West?
According to Her Majesty's Attorney General, "there are many references in the manuscript to incidents, operations, and investigations which are said to have taken place since the end of the Second World War, and which can only have been related to the Defendant by past (or present) members of the Security Service." As a result of Nigel West's meticulous research backed by hundreds of hours of interviews with agents, double agents, and case officers, his book is thoroughly documented with names, dates, and places. Intelligence officers and readers alike cannot fail to be shaken by this remarkable investigation of the work of men who, hitherto, have remained faceless and nameless.
Nigel West is a military historian and writer specializing in intelligence matters. His earlier work, MI5, covering the years through the end of World War 11, led to the exposure of two previously unknown spies. It was characterized by New Society as "The most accurate and informative history of the British security service yet published."
| Price | $7.50 |
|---|---|
| Shipping & Handling | $3.00 |
| Total | $10.50 |
