Mi6

The spy with the bullet-proof Rolls-Royce

7 September 2024 9:00 am

Stationed in Paris from 1926 to 1940, the wealthy, debonair ‘Biffy’ Dunderdale, often seen as a model for James Bond, was also a supremely effective intelligence officer

An accidental spy: Gabriel’s Moon, by William Boyd, reviewed

31 August 2024 9:00 am

Having chanced to interview the Congolese politician Patrice Lumumba shortly before his assassination, a travel writer finds himself targeted by British Intelligence

The forgotten world of female espionage

9 September 2023 9:00 am

Many thousands of women acted as messengers, radio operators and double agents behind enemy lines in both world wars. Here, these resilient and resolute pioneers are retrieved from the mists of history

Do all MI6 men wear such quirky cufflinks?

19 August 2023 9:00 am

‘You’re late. About four years too late.’ The lady in the car-hire office gave a casual shrug and turned her…

Can we brainwash our enemies?

6 April 2023 4:49 am

Disinformation is on the rise, and Britain’s spies are on the back foot. Our intelligence leaders warn about election meddling,…

The secret spy films made by MI6

27 September 2021 8:20 am

Those attending the premiere of No Time to Die this week would perhaps be surprised to learn that the Bond…

Sleeping with the enemy: the wartime story of ‘La Chatte’

10 April 2021 9:00 am

The name ‘Carré’ immediately evokes the shadowy world of espionage. Ironically, however, few people today have heard of the real…

Oleg Gordievsky, the ultimate spy story — and Ben Macintyre, the best writer to tell it

6 October 2018 9:00 am

Spy stories, whether the stuff of fictional thrillers or, as in the case of Sergei Skripal, the real deal —…

Spies in the spotlight

7 November 2015 9:00 am

Spying is a branch of philosophy, although you would never guess it from that expression on Daniel Craig’s face. Its…

Bond would be bored in today’s MI6, says Malcolm Rifkind

6 June 2015 9:00 am

Spying may be one of the two oldest professions, but unlike the other one it has changed quite a lot…

The Heckler: why it’s time to kill off James Bond

11 April 2015 9:00 am

For fans of the franchise who remain unconvinced by Daniel Craig’s time on her majesty’s secret service, the stories leaking…

Max Hastings’s diary: The joys of middle age, and Prince Charles’s strange letters

4 April 2015 9:00 am

I am living in rustic seclusion while writing a book. Our only cultural outing of the week was to Newbury…

Baiting the trap with CHEESE: how we fooled the Germans in the second world war

28 March 2015 9:00 am

Second world war deception operations are now widely known, particularly those which misled the Germans into thinking that the D-Day…

You know something’s up when MI6 moves its head office to Croydon

21 June 2014 9:00 am

Alan Judd’s spy novels occupy a class of their own in the murky world of espionage fiction, partly because they…

A Colder War, by Charles Cumming - review

31 May 2014 9:00 am

The title of Charles Cumming’s seventh novel is both a nod to the comfortable polarities of Cold War and also…

Kim Philby at the press conference he called in 1955 to deny being the ‘Third Man’

Kim Philby got away with it because he was posh

8 March 2014 9:00 am

Kim Philby’s treachery escaped detection for so long through the stupidity and snobbery of the old-boy network surrounding him, says Philip Hensher

Russian Roulette, by Giles Milton - review

31 August 2013 9:00 am

Had Onan not spilled his seed upon the ground, he might have invented invisible ink. The possibility had not occurred…