Churchill and Secret Service - Hardcover

David Stafford

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93 ratings by Goodreads

9780719554070: Churchill and Secret Service

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719554071 ISBN 13: 9780719554070

Publisher: Overlook Press, 1997

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Winston Churchill believed passionately in the value of secret intelligence - in times of war, of course, but also in times of peace. As a young correspondent and soldier in Cuba and South Africa, he experienced its worth first hand. As wartime Prime Minister, he built a centralized intelligence community, responded daily to raw "Ultra" reports, created the Special Operations Executive to work behind enemy lines and, with Roosevelt, built the intelligence alliance that endures to this day. With detail about the secret world of agents and double agents this work traces Churchill's connections from his days as a member of the Cabinet that established the Secret Service to the war years, when his extensive network provided him with superior information. Both an account of the origins and inner workings of modern intelligence agencies and a study of Churchill and his role in their development, this volume is a contribution to the study of modern and military history and a key to understanding Churchill himself.

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About the Author:

David Stafford is a historian and former diplomat, specialising in intelligence and espionage, which he lectured on at the University of Edinburgh and St Andrews.

From AudioFile:

Did Churchill hear of Pearl Harbor beforehand and callously withhold the information, forcing the U.S. into the war? Certainly he protected the "golden eggs" of secret intelligence, raised and fed the goose that laid them. And rarely showed the other Allied nations all his cards. But even if he could keep his mouth shut, Churchill was best known for the magnificent sounds he made when it was opened wide. Here homage is paid. Starting off as the standard BBC announcer, narrator Frederick Davidson cranks up for the stirring speeches and dips the pithy observations in venom or bile. This reading is superb. No, Winston wouldn't do that. Not to us. His mother was American. B.H.C. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

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