Christopher Andrew

Britain’s leading historian of intelligence services Professor Christopher Andrew explains how the art of spying is as old as time and how the work of intelligence services has had an impact on history across the centuries.

Most modern histories of intelligence only go back as far as the 20th century but Andrew argues that an understanding of past practice is essential for intelligence agencies operating in the 21st century. He says the Bletchley codebreakers of World War II had no idea that their predecessors had broken French codes during the Napoleonic wars and those of the Spanish before the Armada, and the Renaissance spies of Europe were equally ignorant of the successes of their predecessors in the Chinese, Indian and Muslim worlds.

Andrew is emeritus professor of modern and contemporary history at Cambridge University where he was the first to teach the history of intelligence. He was the first and only official historian of MI5 and has worked closely with officers of the former KGB. His previous books include the international bestseller The Defence of the Realm: The Authorised History of MI5.