Spy secrets laid bare in MI5’s first official history

THE secrets of 100 years of spying and counter-intelligence work were laid bare yesterday with the publication of the first official history of the Security Service, M15.

The Defence Of The Realm, by Cambridge historian Professor Christopher Andrew, was released to mark the centenary of the founding of the agency in the early weeks of October 1909.

It ranges from its very first days hunting for German spies in the run-up to the First World War to present-day operations to counter the threat from al-Qaida-inspired terrorism.