Derek Nudd's Blog - Posts Tagged "mi6"

Women in Intelligence: The Hidden History of Two World Wars by Helen Fry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It is almost always useful to look at a topic from a different angle, and Helen Fry has done this with the 20th century history of intelligence, focussing on the two world wars from a female perspective. The approach is (mostly) successful.
Dr Fry draws out a number of consistent themes: that British and Allied agencies, under the pressure of existential threat, abandoned entrenched views and appointed the most appropriate person for the job; that commanders felt women had certain abilities men lacked (while carefully not endorsing or contradicting this view); and that women had greater freedom of movement than men in occupied territories, while running the same risks if caught.
There is impressive research into the lives of many of the personalities involved, drawing on both oral and documentary sources. If anything, these stories follow too thickly upon each other and slow down the overall narrative. It's difficult to see what else she could do though, other than move some of the detail into an appendix.
There is an extensive and useful plate section.
There are a few typos and factual slips which should have been picked up by Yale's editors (tut! tut!) and which I hope will be corrected in the paperback edition. Also one or two points where I read the evidence differently - but that's normal disagreement and no reason to dock a star.



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The Quest for C: Sir Mansfield Cumming and the Founding of the British Secret Service by Alan Judd by Alan Judd

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Largely based on Cumming's diaries, this book gives a valuable insight into the man himself and the early years of Britain's foreign intelligence service. Pulled from active retirement by the head of the Naval Intelligence Division (NID) Cumming was constantly defending his nascent operation from tight-fisted paymasters in the Foreign Office, NID perception that his was the deniable face of their own business, and takeover bids from the army's much better resourced counter-intelligence department.
Inevitably, given the secret environment, the story is hedged in speculation and inference. Nonetheless there is valuable material in here - for example a whole chapter on the remarkable agent TR16 (Karl Kruger) who produced detailed material on German dockyards during the First World War and much of the inter-war period. It is a bit disappointing, though, that material from outside the diaries which should be referenced, isn't.
This is already a big book focussed on one individual, so I hesitate to suggest loose ends which could have been followed up more thoroughly.
Overall then, a worthwhile read whose value comes and goes a bit with the garrulousness of the subject's diaries.



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