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Empire of Secrets: British Intelligence, the Cold War, and the Twilight of Empire
Against the backdrop of the Cold War and the looming specter of Soviet dominance in Britain's dwindling colonial possessions, the imperial intelligence service MI5 played a crucial but virtually unseen role in tipping the scales in favor of America and her allies. Working clandestinely behind the scenes, MI5 operatives helped to prop up newly independent states across the globe against a ceaseless campaign of Communist subversion. Though the CIA are often assumed to be the principal actors in the prolonged struggle against the KGB and other Soviet agencies, the so-called "special relationship" between Britain and the United States became the driving force behind an enormous overhaul of Britain's colonial intelligence system, which would play a key role in destabilizing and defeating the Communist threat.
In Empire of Secrets, pioneering intelligence historian Calder Walton reveals how Britain contributed largely silently yet stunningly effectively to the Cold War effort, their victories as invisible to the larger world as their defeats. Mining recently declassified intelligence records, Walton uncovers this missing link in Britain's post-war history. He sheds new light on everything from violent counterinsurgencies fought by British forces in the jungles of Malaya and Kenya, to urban warfare campaigns conducted in Palestine and the Arabian Peninsula. Drawing on a wealth of top-secret documents, as well as hitherto overlooked personal papers, this is the first book to utilize records from the Foreign Office's secret archive, which contains some of the darkest and most shameful secrets from the last days of Britain's empire.
Packed with incidents straight out of a John le Carre novel, Empire of Secrets is an exhilarating read by an exciting new voice in intelligence history. The stories here have chilling contemporary resonance, dealing with the use and abuse of intelligence by governments -- state-sanctioned terrorism, wartime rendition, and "enhanced" interrogation. Britain's bloody imperial past can provide valuable lessons for our present and future.
In Empire of Secrets, pioneering intelligence historian Calder Walton reveals how Britain contributed largely silently yet stunningly effectively to the Cold War effort, their victories as invisible to the larger world as their defeats. Mining recently declassified intelligence records, Walton uncovers this missing link in Britain's post-war history. He sheds new light on everything from violent counterinsurgencies fought by British forces in the jungles of Malaya and Kenya, to urban warfare campaigns conducted in Palestine and the Arabian Peninsula. Drawing on a wealth of top-secret documents, as well as hitherto overlooked personal papers, this is the first book to utilize records from the Foreign Office's secret archive, which contains some of the darkest and most shameful secrets from the last days of Britain's empire.
Packed with incidents straight out of a John le Carre novel, Empire of Secrets is an exhilarating read by an exciting new voice in intelligence history. The stories here have chilling contemporary resonance, dealing with the use and abuse of intelligence by governments -- state-sanctioned terrorism, wartime rendition, and "enhanced" interrogation. Britain's bloody imperial past can provide valuable lessons for our present and future.
411 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2012
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About the author
Calder Walton
3 books35 followersJames Calder Walton is a British-American historian who is widely considered one of the world's leading experts on the history of espionage, intelligence, and national security. He is currently assistant director of the Intelligence Project at Harvard University's Belfer Center.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
June 9, 2025
The end of Great Britain’s once-mighty empire is one that has been recounted innumerable times in histories, memoirs, and fictional works examining it from perspectives ranging from the global to the local. Absent from nearly all of these works, however, is the role played in these events by Britain’s secretive intelligence services. Though prominent today in histories of the world wars and the Cold War standoff against the Soviet Union, their participation in efforts first to maintain Britain’s imperial possessions, then to preserve their influence in the newly-independent territories, has long gone unexamined.
This began to change in recent years with the opening of previously unavailable archives, including a long-hidden collection of “lost” Colonial Office documents that only came to light after a group of elderly Kenyans began legal proceedings against the British government for abuses during the “Emergency” in the final years of their country’s colonial control. Calder Walton is among the first to use these documents to piece together the activities of Britain’s intelligence agencies – the domestically-focused Security Service or MI5, the internationally-focused Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) popularly known as MI6, and the signals intelligence agency GCHQ – during Britain’s long imperial recessional. It is one that he shows was often inextricably tied to Britain’s broader global engagement, which exerted often contradictory forces, sometimes pulling empire apart while at others working to preserve its presence.
As Walton explains, these agencies were relatively new participants in the great game of empire. For most of Britain’s imperial history, the work of building and securing that empire was left to the military or the police. The British were relatively late among the European powers to the creation of intelligence-gathering agencies, with MI5 and SIS established only on the eve of the First World War. While both played important roles in that conflict, after its end they were reduced to a fraction of their wartime size and given only limited funding for their missions. Among them was imperial security, which was primarily the purview of MI5. Despite being tasked with responsibilities for over a quarter of the globe, MI5 initially had only a handful of officers with which to monitor and investigate the threats facing it.
This started to change over the course of the 1930s, as operational boundaries with SIS were more clearly delineated and MI5 posted the first Defence Security Officers (DSO) abroad to coordinate with local military and police authorities. Yet these efforts remained poorly resourced until the Second World War. Here Walton’s narrative devolves into a Euro-centric recounting of British intelligence’s greatest hits of the struggle against Nazi Germany. Pages pass without any mention of the empire, as the author instead recounts well-worn tales of spy derring-do that have already been told by so many others. This broader scope continues into the early Cold War era, though here Walton does a better job of explaining the relevancy of these intelligence battles to the empire’s survival.
Foremost among them was the relationship between British intelligence and their counterparts in the United States. While most Americans were opposed reflexively to maintaining British imperial role, Walton shows how British officials convinced many in the U.S. intelligence community that maintaining their empire would aid them in their confrontation with the Soviets. Not only did British control ensure that those territories would remain free from a communist takeover, but many of the possessions surrounding the Soviet littoral provided excellent locations from which to spy on their mutual foe. As a result, American intelligence soon found itself financing GCHQ outposts in various parts of the empire, and supporting British intelligence operations against colonial subjects advocating for independence.
This assistance proved invaluable as British intelligence found itself facing a swelling tide of independence movements and insurrections throughout their empire. Recounting the role played by MI5 and Britain’s other agencies played in the imperial response to these challenges takes up the majority of the text, as Walton describes their activities in a succession of “emergencies” stretching from India to Aden. Though each is addressed separately, he draws out a number of commonalities from their experiences, such as the persistent overstatement of the communist threat and the effort to preserve a degree of influence in the newly-independent countries by training their indigenous successors. What stands out most, though, was the persistent inability of the British to draw upon lessons from previous campaigns to shape their responses to problems elsewhere. Often these lessons had to be relearned at great cost by the officials on the spot, which usually only increased the likelihood that their efforts would end in failure.
Walton’s account in these later chapters is well grounded in the newly released archival materials, of which he makes good use. Yet while his research is first rate, unfortunately the writing does not measure up to it. Too often the author loses his focus on his ostensible subject, as his narrative continually drifts into a more general history of British intelligence in the 20th century. It also suffers from an annoying degree of repetition: Menachem Begin’s name seemingly cannot go unmentioned by Walton without reference to Begin’s Nobel Peace Prize and the Stern Gang’s murder of Major Roy Farran’s brother by a bomb intended for the major is noted three times in one chapter, to cite just two examples. Better editing to address these issues would have made for a more useful work, which nonetheless makes for a valuable addition to the story of Britain’s postwar withdrawal from their empire.
This began to change in recent years with the opening of previously unavailable archives, including a long-hidden collection of “lost” Colonial Office documents that only came to light after a group of elderly Kenyans began legal proceedings against the British government for abuses during the “Emergency” in the final years of their country’s colonial control. Calder Walton is among the first to use these documents to piece together the activities of Britain’s intelligence agencies – the domestically-focused Security Service or MI5, the internationally-focused Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) popularly known as MI6, and the signals intelligence agency GCHQ – during Britain’s long imperial recessional. It is one that he shows was often inextricably tied to Britain’s broader global engagement, which exerted often contradictory forces, sometimes pulling empire apart while at others working to preserve its presence.
As Walton explains, these agencies were relatively new participants in the great game of empire. For most of Britain’s imperial history, the work of building and securing that empire was left to the military or the police. The British were relatively late among the European powers to the creation of intelligence-gathering agencies, with MI5 and SIS established only on the eve of the First World War. While both played important roles in that conflict, after its end they were reduced to a fraction of their wartime size and given only limited funding for their missions. Among them was imperial security, which was primarily the purview of MI5. Despite being tasked with responsibilities for over a quarter of the globe, MI5 initially had only a handful of officers with which to monitor and investigate the threats facing it.
This started to change over the course of the 1930s, as operational boundaries with SIS were more clearly delineated and MI5 posted the first Defence Security Officers (DSO) abroad to coordinate with local military and police authorities. Yet these efforts remained poorly resourced until the Second World War. Here Walton’s narrative devolves into a Euro-centric recounting of British intelligence’s greatest hits of the struggle against Nazi Germany. Pages pass without any mention of the empire, as the author instead recounts well-worn tales of spy derring-do that have already been told by so many others. This broader scope continues into the early Cold War era, though here Walton does a better job of explaining the relevancy of these intelligence battles to the empire’s survival.
Foremost among them was the relationship between British intelligence and their counterparts in the United States. While most Americans were opposed reflexively to maintaining British imperial role, Walton shows how British officials convinced many in the U.S. intelligence community that maintaining their empire would aid them in their confrontation with the Soviets. Not only did British control ensure that those territories would remain free from a communist takeover, but many of the possessions surrounding the Soviet littoral provided excellent locations from which to spy on their mutual foe. As a result, American intelligence soon found itself financing GCHQ outposts in various parts of the empire, and supporting British intelligence operations against colonial subjects advocating for independence.
This assistance proved invaluable as British intelligence found itself facing a swelling tide of independence movements and insurrections throughout their empire. Recounting the role played by MI5 and Britain’s other agencies played in the imperial response to these challenges takes up the majority of the text, as Walton describes their activities in a succession of “emergencies” stretching from India to Aden. Though each is addressed separately, he draws out a number of commonalities from their experiences, such as the persistent overstatement of the communist threat and the effort to preserve a degree of influence in the newly-independent countries by training their indigenous successors. What stands out most, though, was the persistent inability of the British to draw upon lessons from previous campaigns to shape their responses to problems elsewhere. Often these lessons had to be relearned at great cost by the officials on the spot, which usually only increased the likelihood that their efforts would end in failure.
Walton’s account in these later chapters is well grounded in the newly released archival materials, of which he makes good use. Yet while his research is first rate, unfortunately the writing does not measure up to it. Too often the author loses his focus on his ostensible subject, as his narrative continually drifts into a more general history of British intelligence in the 20th century. It also suffers from an annoying degree of repetition: Menachem Begin’s name seemingly cannot go unmentioned by Walton without reference to Begin’s Nobel Peace Prize and the Stern Gang’s murder of Major Roy Farran’s brother by a bomb intended for the major is noted three times in one chapter, to cite just two examples. Better editing to address these issues would have made for a more useful work, which nonetheless makes for a valuable addition to the story of Britain’s postwar withdrawal from their empire.
February 10, 2017
A very interesting look at the role of Britain's secret services in the withdrawal from Empire. Covering all the major regions of the empire over the course of the Cold War, as Great Britain was forced through a combination of factors to decrease their presence in territories across the globe, Walton explores the parallels between each case. He highlights the ways in which the Service continually failed to learn from previous mistakes, and was forced to learn the same lessons again and again across the Empire.
He is also not afraid to highlight the atrocities committed by the exiting British forces, and the subsequent attempts to brush these under the carpet. In addition, he notes that there is still a large volume of files to be released and investigated, which may well lead to further revelations of the same nature.
Although the pattern of each withdrawal does begin to follow a similar pattern, this is very interesting as an overview of both the operation of the Secret Service in overseas territories, and of the behaviour of the British in their withdrawal from same.
He is also not afraid to highlight the atrocities committed by the exiting British forces, and the subsequent attempts to brush these under the carpet. In addition, he notes that there is still a large volume of files to be released and investigated, which may well lead to further revelations of the same nature.
Although the pattern of each withdrawal does begin to follow a similar pattern, this is very interesting as an overview of both the operation of the Secret Service in overseas territories, and of the behaviour of the British in their withdrawal from same.
November 23, 2022
Six pivotal events set the course of history in the twentieth century. The emergence of the United States as the world’s preeminent economic and military power. The Bolshevik and Chinese Revolutions. World Wars I and II, often lumped together into a latter-day Thirty Years War. And decolonization, accelerated by the dissolution of the British Empire. The last-named of these events is the subject of Empire of Secrets, Calder Walton’s illuminating study of British intelligence at “the twilight of Empire.” It’s a penetrating look at the dark side of British Cold War espionage.
COLD WAR ESPIONAGE IN A QUARTER OF THE WORLD
At the onset of World War II, Britain’s empire spanned the world, covering one-quarter of the planet’s land-mass and housing one-quarter of its people. By 1965, just two decades after the conclusion of the war, little was left of the empire. And the imperial linchpin, India—encompassing the present-day nations of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and including two-thirds of the empire’s population—had long since gone its own way, gaining its independence in 1947. But the process of decolonization was far from smooth. In six of its colonies—Palestine, Malaya, Kenya, Rhodesia, Cyprus, and Aden—Britain faced long-running armed insurgencies. “Burying the British empire was a far more bloody affair than has previously been acknowledged or supposed,” Walton writes. Elsewhere, discontent led to less violent conflict, but conflict it was. And the challenge that represented forced the mother country’s intelligence establishment into a leading role in managing the separation.
“SHAMEFUL ACTS AND CRIMES” AS THE EMPIRE DISSOLVED
After a cursory history of British intelligence from the nineteenth century through World War II, Walton depicts the role of MI5 country by country in a roughly chronological order, usually beginning in 1945. He covers all the hot spots, focusing largely on the six nations where Britain fought against a determined insurgency before granting independence. Americans today, preoccupied by memories of the protracted wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam, rarely remember the violence that erupted around the world as former European colonies sought to leave the empire. But the fighting in Palestine, Malaya, Kenya, Rhodesia, Cyprus, and Aden in the years leading up to their independence dominated headlines around the world for years.
Meanwhile, although the process was far more peaceful, Britain, with MI5 playing a prominent role, was engaged in a contentious struggle in dozens of other colonies, notably including Ghana (then the Gold Coast) and Guayana (then British Guiana)—not to mention India, which dominated Britain’s fears about its empire throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Walton also chronicles the behind-the-scenes-role of British intelligence in the US-engineered 1953 coup in Iran, which brought Shah Reza Palavi to power, and the 1956 British-led assault on Egypt in the Suez Crisis. And none of this paints a pretty picture. Walton quotes liberally from primary sources “detailing the most shameful acts and crimes committed in the last days of the British empire.”
HOW BRITAIN PUNCHED ABOVE ITS WEIGHT IN THE WORLD
During the protracted process of decolonization, Britain’s MI5 was the imperial security service. The country’s better-known Secret Intelligence Service, SIS or MI6, generally took a back seat to their colleagues and sometime rivals at Thames House. When the former colonies gained their independence, the two switched places, with SIS taking the leading role. Of course, the newly independent countries might well have sent Britain’s spies packing. But that didn’t happen. With only a few exceptions, the former colonies chose not to break all ties with Britain. Nearly all remained members of what is today the 54-nation Commonwealth of Nations. Encompassing nearly all of the former empire, the Commonwealth continues to inflate Britain’s stature in the world. And that’s largely due to the continuing role of the UK’s intelligence establishment in its former colonies.
MI5 maintains overseas stations in many of the nations of the Commonwealth. And, perhaps even more significantly, Britain’s GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), its counterpart to the American National Security Agency, is responsible for signals intelligence in the 54 nations of the Commonwealth in an arrangement with the US (and largely funded by the Americans). Thus, “the intelligence provided by Britain’s secret services allowed London to punch far above its weight in the years after 1957, for the rest of the Cold War.” It’s unclear to me to what extent that may still be true. However, what is true is that GCHQ is one of the “Five Eyes” alliance through which Britain, the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand pool their signals intelligence.
THE SAD LEGACY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Americans have long questioned the British establishment’s perspective that its empire played a positive role in the world. Although Britain built railroads and ports and built schools and hospitals, the benefits flowed largely to a tiny native elite. And the entire enterprise was dominated by overt racism and an unabashed policy of using the colonies as markets for British goods while treating them as sources of raw materials.
But it was not just the racism, draconian economic policies, and official violence of colonization that doomed so many of the world’s former colonial states to poverty. A large share of the world’s population today lives within borders arbitrarily drawn by the colonial powers. Apart from the catastrophic decision to partition India, catapulting the world’s largest Muslim population into conflict with the even more numerous Hindus, much of the African map features straight lines and other irrational borders that throw together disparate and often antagonistic groups of people. The British are responsible for much of that. Some, not all, of those groupings disappeared with the end of empire. But border wars continue to flare up in Africa to this day as a direct result.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Calder Walton is an Assistant Director at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He specializes in the history of intelligence, broadly concerned with grand strategy and international relations. Empire of Secrets is based on research he conducted as a graduate student at Trinity College of the University of Cambridge. His new book, Spies, will be published in 2023. Its focus is the intelligence war that Russia has been waging against the West for a century. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his partner, Catherine, and son, Hayden.
COLD WAR ESPIONAGE IN A QUARTER OF THE WORLD
At the onset of World War II, Britain’s empire spanned the world, covering one-quarter of the planet’s land-mass and housing one-quarter of its people. By 1965, just two decades after the conclusion of the war, little was left of the empire. And the imperial linchpin, India—encompassing the present-day nations of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and including two-thirds of the empire’s population—had long since gone its own way, gaining its independence in 1947. But the process of decolonization was far from smooth. In six of its colonies—Palestine, Malaya, Kenya, Rhodesia, Cyprus, and Aden—Britain faced long-running armed insurgencies. “Burying the British empire was a far more bloody affair than has previously been acknowledged or supposed,” Walton writes. Elsewhere, discontent led to less violent conflict, but conflict it was. And the challenge that represented forced the mother country’s intelligence establishment into a leading role in managing the separation.
“SHAMEFUL ACTS AND CRIMES” AS THE EMPIRE DISSOLVED
After a cursory history of British intelligence from the nineteenth century through World War II, Walton depicts the role of MI5 country by country in a roughly chronological order, usually beginning in 1945. He covers all the hot spots, focusing largely on the six nations where Britain fought against a determined insurgency before granting independence. Americans today, preoccupied by memories of the protracted wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam, rarely remember the violence that erupted around the world as former European colonies sought to leave the empire. But the fighting in Palestine, Malaya, Kenya, Rhodesia, Cyprus, and Aden in the years leading up to their independence dominated headlines around the world for years.
Meanwhile, although the process was far more peaceful, Britain, with MI5 playing a prominent role, was engaged in a contentious struggle in dozens of other colonies, notably including Ghana (then the Gold Coast) and Guayana (then British Guiana)—not to mention India, which dominated Britain’s fears about its empire throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Walton also chronicles the behind-the-scenes-role of British intelligence in the US-engineered 1953 coup in Iran, which brought Shah Reza Palavi to power, and the 1956 British-led assault on Egypt in the Suez Crisis. And none of this paints a pretty picture. Walton quotes liberally from primary sources “detailing the most shameful acts and crimes committed in the last days of the British empire.”
HOW BRITAIN PUNCHED ABOVE ITS WEIGHT IN THE WORLD
During the protracted process of decolonization, Britain’s MI5 was the imperial security service. The country’s better-known Secret Intelligence Service, SIS or MI6, generally took a back seat to their colleagues and sometime rivals at Thames House. When the former colonies gained their independence, the two switched places, with SIS taking the leading role. Of course, the newly independent countries might well have sent Britain’s spies packing. But that didn’t happen. With only a few exceptions, the former colonies chose not to break all ties with Britain. Nearly all remained members of what is today the 54-nation Commonwealth of Nations. Encompassing nearly all of the former empire, the Commonwealth continues to inflate Britain’s stature in the world. And that’s largely due to the continuing role of the UK’s intelligence establishment in its former colonies.
MI5 maintains overseas stations in many of the nations of the Commonwealth. And, perhaps even more significantly, Britain’s GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), its counterpart to the American National Security Agency, is responsible for signals intelligence in the 54 nations of the Commonwealth in an arrangement with the US (and largely funded by the Americans). Thus, “the intelligence provided by Britain’s secret services allowed London to punch far above its weight in the years after 1957, for the rest of the Cold War.” It’s unclear to me to what extent that may still be true. However, what is true is that GCHQ is one of the “Five Eyes” alliance through which Britain, the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand pool their signals intelligence.
THE SAD LEGACY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Americans have long questioned the British establishment’s perspective that its empire played a positive role in the world. Although Britain built railroads and ports and built schools and hospitals, the benefits flowed largely to a tiny native elite. And the entire enterprise was dominated by overt racism and an unabashed policy of using the colonies as markets for British goods while treating them as sources of raw materials.
But it was not just the racism, draconian economic policies, and official violence of colonization that doomed so many of the world’s former colonial states to poverty. A large share of the world’s population today lives within borders arbitrarily drawn by the colonial powers. Apart from the catastrophic decision to partition India, catapulting the world’s largest Muslim population into conflict with the even more numerous Hindus, much of the African map features straight lines and other irrational borders that throw together disparate and often antagonistic groups of people. The British are responsible for much of that. Some, not all, of those groupings disappeared with the end of empire. But border wars continue to flare up in Africa to this day as a direct result.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Calder Walton is an Assistant Director at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He specializes in the history of intelligence, broadly concerned with grand strategy and international relations. Empire of Secrets is based on research he conducted as a graduate student at Trinity College of the University of Cambridge. His new book, Spies, will be published in 2023. Its focus is the intelligence war that Russia has been waging against the West for a century. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his partner, Catherine, and son, Hayden.
January 26, 2015
I was really excited to pick this book up, and I found the experience underwhelming. Overall, it is interesting material, but it isn't presented in a compelling way. I found myself dreading picking the book back up to read it. Unimpressed.
August 29, 2022
Good book about how Britain has trouble with Jewish terrorists in 40s and that Australia has problem with Russian spy structures and after became liberal, that leed to not participate with USA in Vietnam War
Second Malay Uprising when British fought communists that gained support from a high number of Malaysians, mainly those from the Chinese community.
And Mau Mau Uprising where Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the Mau Mau, and the British authorities fought.
Officially the number of Mau Mau and other rebels killed was 11,000, including 1,090 convicts hanged by the British administration.
And Counter-insurgency campaign outcome with capture of rebel leader Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi on 21 October 1956 signalled the defeat of the Mau Mau.
Dedan Kimathi was a rebel field marshal fighting the British colonial authorities in Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s. The violent rebellion remains a controversial part of Kenyan and British history.
Second Malay Uprising when British fought communists that gained support from a high number of Malaysians, mainly those from the Chinese community.
And Mau Mau Uprising where Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the Mau Mau, and the British authorities fought.
Officially the number of Mau Mau and other rebels killed was 11,000, including 1,090 convicts hanged by the British administration.
And Counter-insurgency campaign outcome with capture of rebel leader Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi on 21 October 1956 signalled the defeat of the Mau Mau.
Dedan Kimathi was a rebel field marshal fighting the British colonial authorities in Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s. The violent rebellion remains a controversial part of Kenyan and British history.
February 17, 2014
Good book, within its limitations. Should have been subtitled, "The role of MI5 in British Decolonization," as there was little Cold War info beyond fears that nationalist leaders were Communist sympathizers. The book is also limited by the available sources, which the author frequently notes. Sometimes the author uses the limited available info in interesting ways, other times, he makes an analytic leap too far ( The British warned the French in 1956 that their codes were insecure, therefore the NSA and KGB must have penetrated the French code.)
June 29, 2014
Good book, although it does trot over the entire Middle East in around a hundred pages or so, when more detail would have been appreciated. It's probably because of the paucity of released documents though.
May 8, 2025
Empire of Secrets: British Intelligence, the Cold War, and the Twilight of Empire aims to uncover the inner workings of Britain's intelligence services during the decline of the Empire. However, instead of a gripping exposé, what we get is a repetitive and often unengaging account that struggles to sustain momentum.
The book suffers from an over-reliance on well-trodden narratives, with little fresh insight to differentiate it. Walton frequently revisits the same themes and conclusions, generating frustration rather than deeper understanding. Instead of immersing the reader in the clandestine world of espionage, the book feels like a detached academic exercise, devoid of the urgency and intrigue that makes intelligence histories compelling.
The book suffers from an over-reliance on well-trodden narratives, with little fresh insight to differentiate it. Walton frequently revisits the same themes and conclusions, generating frustration rather than deeper understanding. Instead of immersing the reader in the clandestine world of espionage, the book feels like a detached academic exercise, devoid of the urgency and intrigue that makes intelligence histories compelling.
July 15, 2023
A very detailed look at British intelligence from 1945 through the early 1960's. The author also describes British intelligence is a less detailed account between WW1 and WW2 as a way of "setting the table" for the post WW2 years.
I found it interesting how the British had to manage Palestine and India independence at the same time. Malasia and Ghana paths to independence were also interesting stories in terms of how intelligence managed the situations.
No surprise at Russian Communist actions after WW2 trying to subvert wide swaths of the world to Communism and British response to that constant threat
I found it interesting how the British had to manage Palestine and India independence at the same time. Malasia and Ghana paths to independence were also interesting stories in terms of how intelligence managed the situations.
No surprise at Russian Communist actions after WW2 trying to subvert wide swaths of the world to Communism and British response to that constant threat
September 12, 2023
I became interested in this book after hearing an interview with the author. This book uses a tranche of formerly secret documents ocuses on how British intelligence was used as the British Empire came to a close following World War II. Is especially interested to read more about intelligence and the Suez Crisis, having read Evelyn Schuckburgh's excellent "Descent to Suez" years ago.
The various lessons learned are interesting, but the details of"who was where" was sometimes tedious. All in all this book contains (to me) some useful information to add to existing knowledge of how the world transformed just prior to and after I was born.
The various lessons learned are interesting, but the details of"who was where" was sometimes tedious. All in all this book contains (to me) some useful information to add to existing knowledge of how the world transformed just prior to and after I was born.
December 4, 2023
Not a bad read at all if you want to correct your understanding of how an intelligence agency works. It is not all jason bourne, james bond as hollywood might have us believe. By reading this book, the first thing you learn is that intelligence work is most of the times a typical bureaucratic business with thousands of moving parts, deciding authorities and conflicting interests.
All in all, a dry yet informative read for the people who want to know the inner workings of intellgience world and their role in their country's affairs.
All in all, a dry yet informative read for the people who want to know the inner workings of intellgience world and their role in their country's affairs.
August 2, 2024
I thought I would enjoy this more than I did. The topic is one I enjoy, and the early Cold War is something of a blind spot for me in my historical knowledge. It just didn't grab me though. It felt like every page had a sentence along the lines of "the role of the intelligence service in this event was greater than thought," which is interesting I guess, but pretty repetitive.
I did learn about the pretty disastrous British efforts in Malaya, and the honestly wild subversion of democracy in Guyana because the Americans didn't fancy a Marxist in the Western Hemisphere, so not a total dud, but not what I wanted.
1.5/5
I did learn about the pretty disastrous British efforts in Malaya, and the honestly wild subversion of democracy in Guyana because the Americans didn't fancy a Marxist in the Western Hemisphere, so not a total dud, but not what I wanted.
1.5/5
October 23, 2024
Empire of Secrets fills in many heretofore unknown details about Great Britain's secret intelligence services and their contributions during the Cold War. Admittedly, it reads a bit like a text book, but it serves as a cautionary tale about the excesses and abuse of power and intelligence. It's an important book and should be read by anyone interested in 20th Century European history, the post-colonial era, and the Cold War.
November 16, 2019
Based largely on only recently (at the time of writing) declassified intelligence records, this book provides an interesting, critical account of the role of the British intelligence services during the last decades of empire. Fascinating material, though the writing proved to be a little dry.
March 20, 2021
Very detailed, well researched book about the end of the British Empire. Lots of history. The author does a good job of even fleshing out some of the key figures of the time.
September 22, 2014
Empire of Secrets plows through virgin territory, summarizing previously undisclosed intelligence files related to Britain's retreat from empire. Starting at the conclusion of World War II and covering the independence of Israel, Malaysia, Ghana, Kenya, Cyprus and Yemen, Calder Walton documents the recurring problems faced by Britain's intelligence agencies through the 1950s and 1960s. First, Britain routinely under-resourced intelligence efforts in its colonies and thus failed to provide decision makers (whether in London or the colonial administration) with the current state of affairs. Secondly, Walton illustrates Britain's inability to apply the lessons of one colonial emergency to the next; each colonial administration seemingly discovered through trial and error the same techniques for responding to nationalist crises. A worthwhile read for those interested in colonial history or those interested in intelligence policy.
September 27, 2016
A good book, which definitely could be used as an introduction to Christopher Andrew's official history of MI5, as Walton's narrative can at times focus heavily on MI5 and cover the same ground in more detail. However this is not a major issue, as the author explains the MI5 files are some of the few archives that have been released to the public. This book certainly provides more context to the retreat from empire and should definitely be on the shelves of those interested in the end of empire.
Want to read
February 1, 2013KOBOBOOKS
Reviewed by The Guardian (31 Jan 2013)
Reviewed by The Guardian (31 Jan 2013)
May 19, 2013
interesting book looking at intelligence services of Britain and its empire from WW1 to the withdrawal of Britain from rhoadesia and the failings in the cold war era
March 28, 2014
Quite comprehensive account of the last gasps of the British Empire and how it maintained its influence (or tried to) after relinquishing power...
December 15, 2016
A very good history book about British Intelligence services.
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