A gripping exploration of the last great unknown realm of the British secret service: Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ).
GCHQ is the successor to Bletchley Park and is the largest and most secretive intelligence organisation in the country. Since the end of the Cold War, it has played a pivotal role in shaping Britain's secret state. Still, we know almost nothing about it.
In this ground-breaking new book, Richard Aldrich traces GCHQ's evolution from a wartime code-breaking operation based in the Bedfordshire countryside to one of the world's leading espionage organisations.
Packed to the brim with dramatic spy stories - including secret submarine missions, hidden tunnels dug to tap phones and Soviet moles - GCHQ also explores the organisation's role in tackling some of the most troubling issues of our time: Al Qaeda, privacy and surveillance. Revelatory and brilliantly written, this is the crucial missing link in Britain's intelligence history.
'Richard J. Aldrich is an outstanding analyst and historian of intelligence ... an important book' Sunday Times