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The Circus: MI5 Operations 1945-1972
The MI5 Operations 1945-1972 Nigel The MI5 Operations 1945-1972 Stein And Day FIRST First Edition Thus, First Printing. Not price-clipped. Published by Stein And Day Publishers, 1984. 12mo. Paperback. Book is very good with very light toning to the page ends. Covers have some light shelf wear. 100% positive feedback. 30 day money back guarantee. NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Excellent customer service. Please email with any questions. All books packed carefully and ship with free delivery confirmation/tracking. All books come with free bookmarks. Ships from Sag Harbor, New York.Seller 349728 Pulp Paperbacks We Buy Books! Collections - Libraries - Estates - Individual Titles. Message us if you have books to sell!
334 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 3, 2020
The book was ok it wasn't that good west does not believe that either hollis or Mitchell were moles the problem with that is he poops on pincher at every opportunity he gets and avoids all the circumstantial evidence pincher provides. This book came before spycatcher which is a much better book compared to this one.
December 23, 2023
High 3, still unsure of how entertained I was after reading the book. I am probably partial to American spy agency books, both fiction and nonfiction. I can at least see how John Le Carre gets inspiration for his very British spy novels. Book is notable but meh for its entertainment value.
August 9, 2017
Nigel West is a pen name for Rupert Allason, who has written quite a number of books on espionage. A member of parliament from 1987-1997, he has lectured at both the CIA and, ironically, the KGB.
If you weren't an adult during the years that the Cambridge Five spy ring was seeping into the headlines, this book will send you off to Wikipedia constantly (I should have realized the back cover's statement "everybody knows about Philby, Burgess, Maclean and Blunt - But what about the others?" was a warning.) There is an assumption that you're familiar with the major communist agent cases discovered in British MI5 / MI6 during the 1970s and need minimal references before taking on more.
And there is more. You'll put this book down thinking that Canada, the U.S., and England were veritable sieves of confidential information, while Russia, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and even South Afrika were able to waltz into "secret" locations and turn previously average citizens into communists at will. The individuals that MI5 and the CIA attempt to use to help their operations generally become irresponsible, while the Russian tools rarely failed. You also get a brief view of the Profumo Affair.
Knowing what we know now, it's really terribly sad, as we receive hints of the levels of tracking the security agencies are able to do (with no real results), while the opposing agencies are able to efficiently run circles around them and recruit naive and idealistic British agents. The book gives an interesting overview - but without details.
If you weren't an adult during the years that the Cambridge Five spy ring was seeping into the headlines, this book will send you off to Wikipedia constantly (I should have realized the back cover's statement "everybody knows about Philby, Burgess, Maclean and Blunt - But what about the others?" was a warning.) There is an assumption that you're familiar with the major communist agent cases discovered in British MI5 / MI6 during the 1970s and need minimal references before taking on more.
And there is more. You'll put this book down thinking that Canada, the U.S., and England were veritable sieves of confidential information, while Russia, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and even South Afrika were able to waltz into "secret" locations and turn previously average citizens into communists at will. The individuals that MI5 and the CIA attempt to use to help their operations generally become irresponsible, while the Russian tools rarely failed. You also get a brief view of the Profumo Affair.
Knowing what we know now, it's really terribly sad, as we receive hints of the levels of tracking the security agencies are able to do (with no real results), while the opposing agencies are able to efficiently run circles around them and recruit naive and idealistic British agents. The book gives an interesting overview - but without details.
February 8, 2015
This text reads like the quintessence of a book or the abstract of one, it being very condensed as it moves from one Mi5 (British counterintelligence) operation to another over the period of 1945 to 1972. Having read so much about Mi5, Mi6 and CIA activities in the postwar years it served as a refresher and did actually help tie things together owing to its historical breadth, but someone new to such a study might find it too abstract.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews