MI6: The Real James Bonds 1909-1939

by Michael Smith

MI6 tells the complete story of the Secret Intelligence Service’s birth in 1909 and its first thirty years, including the tragic tale of what happened to Britain’s extensive interwar networks in Soviet Russia. It tells the story of Britain’s hidden networks in the United States, thwarting German shipping saboteurs and tracking down Indian seditionaries. It also shows the development of “tradecraft” and the great personal risk officers and their agents took, far from home and unprotected, as well as the violence meted out in the King’s name—including running a Swiss murder gang that used attractive girls to lure and murder Bolshevik messengers.

This first part of MI6 takes us up to the eve of World War II, using hundreds of previously unreleased files and interviews with key players to show how one of the world’s most secretive of secret agencies originated and developed into something like the MI6 we know today.

Genres: History, Espionage, Nonfiction, British Literature, 20th Century

469 pages, Hardcover

First published July 15, 2010

About the author

There is more than one Michael Smith in the database.

Michael Smith is a British author and screenwriter who specializes in spies and espionage.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[James Tidd · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first part of Michael Smith's epic unauthorised history of Britain's secret intelligence service.

Six is the epic telling of the British Secret Service's first thirty years, from its early years, being setup in 1909 on the plausible basis that all Germans living in the UK were spies. In 1911, the various security organisations were re-organised under the SIB, the Foreign Section (Secret Service Bureau) responsible for all overseas operations being set up under Mansfield Smith-Cumming, known as C as his surname began with C. Ian Fleming based his M character in the Bond movies on Cumming, but calling him M after the letter of his first name, Miles, rather than his surname. During World War 1, the SSB became MI6. Agents known for their work during the war included among others John Buchan, the author of the 39 steps and fellow author W. Somerset Maugham. Included in the book are the attempts to spy on Germany, not only before the Great War but right up to the eve of the Second War, it looks at the murder of Rasputin and some of the most daring secret missions against Bolshevik Russia.

I personally think that the book could have been longer, it ends with the second appendix on page 402. I think another 350-400 pages could have been added, with some of these close calls being told about more.

[Andrew Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A briskly paced history of the British SIS, a precursor of MI6, from its inception in 1909 till the outbreak of the Second WW, under its two first directors: Mansfield Cumming and Hugh Sinclair. The hundreds of its agents were involved in collection of intelligence in the range of European and Near East countries. In January 1917 they managed to prevent the Germans from stopping their supplies to Russia. Barron Otto von Rosen was stopped at Norwegian border and found with bombs, poisons and glass phials of anthrax and pencil bombs, which exploded when being sharpened.

Their agent, Oswald Rayner was involved in liquidating Rasputin to prevent him to convince the tsar from signing a peace treaty with the Germans, and 70 German divisions being moved to the Western Front. Another super spy Sydney Reilly was involved in an attempt to overthrow the Bolshevik government.

Thanks to SIS work the British government was aware of German-Russian military cooperation in the twenties and joint work on a range of chemical and bacteriological weapons.

In the thirties, the Berlin bureau chief, Frank Foley saved tens of thousands of Jews from Holocaust, by providing them with passports to leave Germany.

[Alistair Edwards · Rating 2 out of 5]

A friend lent me this book. I thought the topic was interesting, but I am afraid that I did not finish it. I think I gave it a good attempt; I went over 100 pages (up to about 1917), but couldn't get any further. The problem for me that it was just too detailed; there was simply too much of it. Even when reading a novel I can find it hard to keep track of names, but these long accounts of who was in charge of which agents where - and how much each was paid - was just too much for me.

I am not sure of the utility of such a long, detailed book - unless you wanted to use it as source material to write a history of MI6.

I'm giving it more than one star because perhaps it's more my problem than the author's.

[Mary Beth Pritzl · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a list of names and depts than specifics of agents' experiences

[Gareth Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's certainly an interesting read, but one which could have been more interesting if some of the more colourful stories had been expanded and some of the diligent fact reporting (so and so move to the some location assisted by somebody) dropped. Nevertheless there is some very interesting material here, especially on soviet Russia.