The amazing true story of the real ‘M’, William Melville, who was MI5’s founding father and the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s character in James Bond. He was perfect for the job, a velvet-gloved hardman whose career would take in Britain’s first terrorist outrages.
At the start of the twentieth century, it was Melville who, from a small secret office in London’s Victoria Street, lobbied the Government to create an effective counter-intelligence service. Today MI5, the organization he strove to create, is a household name and one of the world’s leading intelligence agencies.
Melville had a devious mind and a bleakly humorous view of humanity, and because he understood the motive of the criminal and the spy, he was able to pioneer methods and tactics that still work and are in use today, albeit improved by modern technology.
With the help of declassified records, family material and documents that have still not seen the light of day, the story of his Secret Service career can finally be told.
M:MI5 First Spymaster
‘A brilliantly researched biography’
DAME STELLA RIMINGTON (FORMER DIRECTOR OF MI5)
‘Andrew Cook is a brilliant investigative historian. He remains splendidly clear-sighted even while operating in that notorious wilderness of mirrors, the world of intelligence. Well-researched, penetrating and engagingly written’.
ANDREW ROBERTS
‘Unmasked: the British spy who inspired James Bond’s M. One of the great espionage mysteries has finally been solved … like all good spies, Melville carefully hid his true identity. Unlike his office-bound namesake, the real M was also an active field operative’.
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
‘A very readable and brilliantly researched biography of the real ‘M’ – a far more hands-on-character than 007’s boss’.
DAME STELLA RIMINGTON (FORMER MI5 DIRECTOR-GENERAL)
Compelling and authoritative… M was the most elusive and fascinating figure in the British Secret Service ‘.
LORD ROBERTSON (FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR DEFENCE & SECRETARY-GENERAL OF NATO)