The most horrible sections are those where Philby shares details of planned military operations, resulting in the mass deaths of the operatives involved. Macintyre unpicks Philby’s life in a narrative that starts quite ominous in tone and only gets more tense as Philby’s power and reach grows, and the damage spreads. Some say the effects of his treachery are still felt today. The information he provided to the Soviets devastated Britain’s intelligence agencies for decades. He was also a double agent working for the Soviet Union for virtually all of the nearly thirty years he served in the intelligence service. A highly placed MI6 intelligence officer who rose to first secretary to the British Embassy in Washington, DC, and chief liaison with the CIA, he had huge access to top secret information. On the list of Britain’s most notorious traitors, Kim Philby ranks near the top. This book is filled with extraordinary people taking unbearable risks in extreme circumstances. (Ian Fleming changed this to “M” in the James Bond novels.) Ferguson’s book describes in brilliant detail the eccentric warren of tiny offices in the attics of London’s Whitehall where C’s secret service was tucked away during World War I, as its agents, mostly ex-military men, scattered across Europe to risk absolutely everything to find out what German Kaiser was planning, and stop him. He was known to all as “C”, and every subsequent head of MI6 has been called “C” in his honor. Having lost his leg in a car accident, he had a wooden prosthetic that he would stab unexpectedly with a knife during meetings to unnerve people. Cumming is an unforgettable character – the great-great grandson of the founder of the East India Company, he was born to wealth and prone to florid demands and temperamental rages. This extraordinary book rockets through the founding of Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) by Mansfield Smith-Cumming in the early years of the 20 th century. Here are my favorite, stranger than fiction, utterly gripping, non-fiction books about real spies. The best books I’ve discovered about espionage are not novels, but non-fiction works about actual spies and their remarkable, deadly exploits. Having spent several years steeped in spies, I can honestly say that in books, real life is better than fiction.

From Kim to Ashenden to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, along with every book that became a film starring Michael Caine. When I first started thinking about writing a spy novel, I read every book I could find about espionage.

Are there real secret agents