When an American hears or reads ‘Secret Service’ we think of the POTUS’s security detail. But this book is really about the British secret services that fought the Nazis. It is easy to be confused when choosing to read this book, but if you’re interested in the British Secret Services, this is a very good scholarly book.

A new and interesting piece of the historical puzzle which was World War Two and a must-read for those interested in how politics at all levels influence common sense and outcomes. It was interesting to see the common threads across different perspectives and consider the role espionage played in defeating Nazism.

I must confess I did find this a difficult read since it is a collection of disconnected stories which focus mostly on the failures of intelligence gathering principally as a result of personality clashes. It does appear to be written for those who already have knowledge of certain wartime events involving the secret service and serves to fill in some or many of the small gaps in peoples knowledge. For those, like me, where the gaps are particularly wide, it was often difficult to get a sense of the bigger picture. For example, the story of how Poland were particularly let down by its Allies throughout WW2 and afterwards I found fascinating and could have been expanded into a whole book on Alliance versus national interests rather than details of the intelligence interactions.
What does come across is a consistent theme of personality clashes and departmental bickering in the Intelligence community which leaves you wandering how they functioned at all let alone reaching the success they achieved. It did occur to me at one stage that perhaps Kim Philby's biggest betrayal may have been simply describing to the Soviets the level of disfunction in the British secret services!
As a historical reference I am sure this book is very relevant but for the casual reader then be prepared for some further reading to fill in many gaps.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for the opportunity to review this book.

Although the subject of the book was interesting, I was disappointed overall. The author spent half of the book talking about in-fighting and events that happened after the war. I felt that there was so much more that could have been discussed about what the secret service did during the war as the title suggested.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.