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You know about MI5. You know about MI6.
Now discover the untold stories behind Britain's most secretive intelligence agency, in the first ever authorised history of GCHQ.
For a hundred years, GCHQ - Government Communications Headquarters - has been at the forefront of innovation in national security and British secret statecraft. Famed for its codebreaking achievements during the Second World War, and essential to the Allied victory, GCHQ also held a critical role in both the Falklands War and Cold War. Today, amidst the growing threats of terrorism and online crime, GCHQ continues to be the UK's leading intelligence, security and cyber agency, and a powerful tool of the British state.
Based on unprecedented access to classified archives, Behind the Enigma is the first book to authoritatively tell the entire history of this most unique and enigmatic of organisations - and peer into its future at the heart of the nation's security.
About the author
John Ferris
Summary
You know about MI5. You know about MI6.
Now discover the untold stories behind Britain's most secretive intelligence agency, in the first ever authorised history of GCHQ.
For a hundred years, GCHQ - Government Communications Headquarters - has been at the forefront of innovation in national security and British secret statecraft. Famed for its codebreaking achievements during the Second World War, and essential to the Allied victory, GCHQ also held a critical role in both the Falklands War and Cold War. Today, amidst the growing threats of terrorism and online crime, GCHQ continues to be the UK's leading intelligence, security and cyber agency, and a powerful tool of the British state.
Based on unprecedented access to classified archives, Behind the Enigma is the first book to authoritatively tell the entire history of this most unique and enigmatic of organisations - and peer into its future at the heart of the nation's security.
Foreword
The first ever authorised history of GCHQ, Britain's most secretive intelligence agency, written with unprecedented access to classified archives
Additional text
A fascinating tale . It takes us with the codebreakers - mathematicians, linguists, teachers and philosophers and eccentrics - through the ages of radio, telegrams telephone and satellites to the digital present
Report
Fascinating . [Ferris] has rescued several great women codebreakers from obscurity . [Bletchley Park] has become embedded in national myth, but Ferris offers cool and balanced judgment . This monumental work completes the authorised picture of a century of British intelligence, a testament to how far Britain has moved away from the cult of official secrecy Ben Macintyre The Times
