Ros is in grave danger after Bob Hogan discovers she’s a traitor… Jo’s caught by an Algerian extremist and thrown into a car with a bomb… Danny, on Close Quarter Protection, is shaken when his charge is shot at…

Just another day’s work in the fictional lives of the characters on BBC’s Spooks (known as MI-5 here in North America). But what you’ll find in Christopher Andrew’s new book, The Defence of the Realm is far from fiction.  The 1,032 page work is the first authorized history of Britain’s domestic security agency to be published.

Andrew, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Cambridge University, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, former Visiting Professor of National Security at Harvard University, and guest lecturer at numerous American universities and the CIA, not to mention  author of other spy-themed books including Her Majesty’s Secret Service: The Making of the British Intelligence Community,  spent seven years reviewing 400,000 files as research for his latest book.

The Defence of the Realm looks back at the the start of the agency 100 years ago when it was a two-man operation, its activities throughout the World Wars, right through to  and including its present roles in counter-espionage and counter-terrorism.

“Almost every day I said to myself, ‘Crikey, I didn’t know that,’” Andrew told reporters.

Stephen Lander, a retired MI5 director-general said the book was “a cracking good read”.

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