A good intro to & overview of (mostly) British/American spycraft throughout the 1900s. Takes us through the formation of the modern state-sponsored espionage systems as we know them today and charts their development across two world wars and one cold one. I thought it leaned a little too heavily on the idea of singular unique & important men as agents of change but can't exactly be too critical since I am not an expert in this subject and perhaps that is exactly how it happened, who knows. I appreciated the links back to spy fiction, I thought the tenuous nature of the barrier between reality and fantasy was well illustrated. I think the focus on one country is this book's downfall a little bit, though -- a whole lot of stuff gets glossed over really fast to return to Britain, like the Korean war is mentioned once, the Vietnam war gets barely any screentime, Algeria's war of independence was mentioned once and then immediately we go back to France. If the scope of the book had been narrowed to Britain I think there would be less pressure to mention this stuff & thereby it would have saved me the trouble of perking up at the prospect of reading about the FLN and being disappointed lmao. Anyway it's a nice quick read and I would probably recommend it to someone interested in a broad-ranging history of British spycraft.

Small but very important note, there's this recurring comparison to sieves that is extremely good value. The SIS is described as leaking "like a badly made sieve" and it's just -- surely a competently made sieve would leak more, and better, as that is the function of its existence.... Then he goes on to call someone "an enormously powerful sieve" which is just funny, and the motif makes its glorious third appearance in British security leaking "like a collection of sieves stacked one on top of the other". At that point wouldn't they leak less for being so stacked? I don't know but this was the funniest part of the book for me. A+ on the sieves. Thank you to NetGalley and Pen & Sword for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love spy novels, and spy movies, and this book was an auto-buy right from the title. Excellently written, takes you through a century where countries started setting up espionage departments, and didn't rely on a few people managed by a maverick who weren't necessarily equipped to carry out the task. He gives you some historical context too, Francis Walsingham, of course, but also some very intrepid spies during the American war of independence. He traces the development of spy agencies, their methods of recruitment ( mostly trusty old boys, of course), their early difficulties with funding (Mansfield Cummings paying from his own funds several times). This could have just been a book that leapt from one anecdote to another, but it's more than that- Carradice traces the development of espionage itself, with their failures as well, and the situations and oversights that led up to those intelligence failures. THroughout the book, he interweaves it with the developments in spy fiction and in some ways, how scaremongering by spy novelists like William LeQueux increased political focus on espionage. The book takes you through developments in the 20th Century, and the ways in which spies interacted with those. I found it fascinating that he doesn't restrict himself to the usual suspects-you read about incredibly brave spies like Richard Sorge, the Lucy spy ring among others during World War 2. What's interesting is that he also chronicles spies from other countries, including Japan. As the 20th century unwinds, and the hot wars turn Cold, espionage becomes both more fantastical and more useful. Carradice continues to maintain an even keel, though, with none of the triumphalism associated with jingoistic spy novels like those written by TOm Clancy, for instance. There were no good guys really, in the Cold War, and his accounts of the "atomic spies" are quite moving. I hadn't heard of Oleg Penkovsky and Ruth Kaczyinski, and their stories are absolutely fascinating. The book both starts and ends with excellent chapters on spy fiction, which is quite fitting, for most of us that's the gateway to an interest in espionage. I can't recommend this book enough, it's a great overview of a century, and not just about the shadowy people who played their parts.

Princess Fuzzypants here: This is a fascinating in-depth look at espionage. It traces the roots of spying, or the collecting of information to give “your side” an advantage, back to ancient history. Information has always been golden particularly when two sides are at odds. But it was early in the 20th Century that it became a science of sorts. During the build up to and the progress of WW I, it was an art form practiced by both sides. Spies could be providing detailed information or undermining the war effort or betraying one side or the other. It was a dangerous activity often with deadly results if caught and as the various events of the century changed the cast of villains, things got more and more sophisticated as the years ticked by.

The book gives details a lot of the framework within which the spies operated and it also tells some interesting stories about some of the more important purveyors of spying over those 100 hundred years. It was both accessible and enlightening. Four purrs and two paws up.

The majority of this book is about spying as part on the UK Governments intelligence and counter-intelligence bureaus. There is a short preface of the history of spying related to Europe and England prior to the twentieth century but mostly it deals with the English and the agencies of other countries that spied on the UK. The best foreign coverage is that of Russia/USSR and the Cambridge Five.

The first agency (MI5) was chartered in 1909 and was to be a supplement to the Office of Naval Intelligence (who only dealt with other navies). Like a lot of the early agencies of European countries the people who were put in charge were there because of who they were and who they knew. If they had even a modicum of an idea of how to spy or look for other spies, it was just serendipity. As we move past the Great War, spying begins to look more like the spy novels of the time but the real agents are never as smart as the fictional ones.

As a Welshman, Carradice has no problem pointing out all of the foibles of the British Aristocrats who were in charge of Intelligence. You became a spy because your country needed you and you could learn what you needed to know, on the job. Just reading the sections on the Cambridge Five gives you an idea of what politicians thought of the "spy game" (no something any real gentleman would do).

Being a short book, 224 pages, makes it an enjoyable quick read.

I really would have preferred to read more about the escapades and stories of individual spies and less about the history and development of the spy organizations. I also did not expect to read about spies in fiction and movies. But it was interesting reading nonetheless. It's amazing to me how double agents were able to pull it off without dying from the stress and fear, and apparently there were a lot of them! The perspective on spies and technology of today was also interesting and you do wonder what spies are up to nowadays!

Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley

Carradice’s a hundred years of spying is a bit of misnomer. He does cover more than a hundred years, at least if one includes a brief overview of spying starting in ancient times. The bulk of the book is on the World Wars and the Cold War.
While the book does provide a good general overview to the history of spying, albeit mostly focused on the Western World. It’s true that the book is general, but there are some in depth looks at famous spies – such as the Cambridge Five. Some theories are discussed. The discussion of WWI and the Cold War are good. The section about the Cambridge Five is also well done. The discussion about modern spy work while some what less detailed for obvious reasons, is worth reading.
Quite frankly, I am fed up with Mata Hari getting so much press while more successful female agents are left out. This book does continue with that tradition. It is also interesting that while La Dame Blanche is discussed emphasis is placed on the role of the men in the organization. Furthermore, the role of women in SOE is given less attention than that of the men. For instance, he describes the SOE almost as solely men until the concluding paragraphs. Pearl Witherington was a member of SOE and one of those guerrilla fighters. There could have been, and should have been, more acknowledgment of the role of women here. While Marie-Madeline Fourcade is mentioned, and compared to Hari because of course her beauty is the important thing. She gets a paragraph divided evenly between general statements about her successes in spying and how good looking she was.
Yet, even with the predominant male focus and gaze, it is a good introduction and overview.

A spy is probably not an urbane, upper-class, dashing figure like James Bond today. He or she is more likely to be an ordinary person behind the counter at the supermarket. This whirlwind history of spying, however, tells tales of intrepid spies, such as La Dame Blanche, a group of women spies in the First World War, and Sydney Reilly, who had adventures in Russia. It also looks at spy fiction.

It's worth reading if you like books about spies.

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9781526781413
PRICE £20.00 (GBP)