About the Author
Nigel Westwas born in London and educated at a Benedictine monas-
tery before reading English at university. He is a military historian spe-
cializing in intelligence and security issues, and while still at university
he worked as a researcher for two authors: Ronald Seth, who had been
parachuted into Silesia by Special Operations Executive, and Richard
Deacon, formerly the foreign editor of theSunday Times. He later
joined BBC TV’s General Features department to work on theSPY!and
ESCAPEseries.
Mr. West’s first book, coauthored with Richard Deacon in 1980 for
BBC Publications, was the book of theSPY!series, and it was followed
by other nonfiction:British Security Service Operations, 1909–1945
(1981);A Matter of Trust: MI5, 1945–1972(1982);MI6: British Secret
Intelligence Service Operations, 1909–1945(1983);The Branch: A
History of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch(1983);Unreliable
Witness: Espionage Myths of the Second World War(1984);GARBO,
coauthored with Juan Pujol (1985);GCHQ: The Secret Wireless War
(1986);Molehunt(1987);The Friends: Britain’s Postwar Secret Intelli-
gence Operations(1988);Games of Intelligence(1989);Seven Spies
Who Changed the World(1991);Secret War: The Story of SOE(1992);
The Faber Book of Espionage(1993);The Illegals(1993);The Faber
Book of Treachery(1995);The Secret War for the Falklands(1997);
Counterfeit Spies(1998);Crown Jewels, with Oleg Tsarev (1998);
VENONA: The Greatest Secret of the Cold War(1999);The Third Se-
cret(2000); andMortal Crimes(2004).
TheSunday Timeshas commented that ‘‘his information is so precise
that many people believe he is the unofficial historian of the secret ser-
vices. West’s sources are undoubtedly excellent. His books are pep-
pered with deliberate clues to potential front-page stories.’’ In 1989 he
was voted the Experts’ Expert by a panel of spy writers selected by the
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