Synopses & Reviews
John Hughes-Wilson is a recently retired Colonel in British military intelligence. He reveals how intelligence is the hidden hand behind major events, from stunning military victories to disasters like Pearl Harbor and 9/11. It soon emerges that the Cold War spying game, as depicted by John Le Carre, has been going on for centuries. Almost every devious trick used by the KGB or the CIA would have been familiar to Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth I's intelligence chief. He trapped Mary Queen of Scots in a conspiracy that led to her execution: a brilliant operation that involved breaking Spanish codes, torturing their spies and turning many into double-agents. His methods, and his conviction that 'the ends justify the means, ' have been shared by successful intelligence chiefs from Roman times to the present day. He argues that Military Intelligence - not prostitution - is the world's oldest profession, but the two often overlap. From the prostitute in Jericho who did Joshua's spies to the infamous KGB 'honey traps' that ensnared CIA agents, politicians and businessmen, ladies of the night appear with salacious frequency in the story.