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Members’ Event - Six: A History of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service - Murder and Mayhem 1909-1939

18:00, 19 Jul 2010
RUSI, Whitehall, London, SW1A 2ET
Link to map: multimap

About the event:

Six 2Michael Smith will discuss the first volume of his new book – Six: A History of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service - Murder and Mayhem 1909-1939, an unofficial history of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) – with Professor Peter Hennessy.

In their discussion, they will cover the period from the service’s creation in 1909 to the start of the Second World War in 1939, an era which saw Britain’s spooks involved in a variety of acts of torture, murder and mayhem that make today’s controversies seem almost mundane. Yet SIS managed to produce an astonishing amount of intelligence, despite perhaps understandable official suspicion and a continuous squeeze on budgets. Smith's book includes never before seen material from both public and private archives revealing successes and failures alike.

Michael Smith is the award winning defence correspondent of the Sunday Times. He served in the Intelligence Corps before joining the BBC and then the Daily Telegraph. Smith has reported from wars in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan and broken many exclusive stories, most notably the Downing Street Memos, which exposed government lies over Iraq. He is the author of many books, including the number one bestseller Station X: The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park and Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews.

Professor Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History, Queen Mary, University of London. He wrote for the Times Educational Supplement, The Times and the Financial Times. He is the author of a number of books on British politics and Whitehall, most notably the multi-award winning Never Again: Britain 1945-51 and Having It So Good: Britain in the 1950s, which won the 2007 Orwell Prize. His book Secret State: Whitehall and the Cold War looks at every aspect of the civil service, including the intelligence services.

This is followed by a drinks reception from 1900 to 2000. Michael Smith will be on hand to sign copies of his book, to be published by Dialogue on 7 July, which will be on sale.

This event is open to RUSI members only. To become a member, please click here.

To attend this event, please register online using the “Book your place” button above. If you have any queries please contact Sabrina Downey, Events Director, at sabrinad@rusi.org or call +44 (0)20 7747 2622.

 

Event manager: Sabrina Downey

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