MI6 is one of Britain’s most elusive organisations. Its head, Richard Dearlove, is virtually unknown – a contemporary photograph has never appeared in the press. Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service clamps down on any dissident reports of its activities and despite the architectural prominence of its London headquarters at Vauxhall Cross, its operations and structures remain veiled from scrutiny. Even its true budget is a secret.

To write about MI6 risks harassment and prosecution, as former members and current commentators know to their cost. It is impossible, under the laws presently shielding MI6 and its sister service, MI5, to write about its daily activities: there is no right to know what is undertaken abroad today in the name of Britain’s security. But MI6 has a history, and that reveals a great deal.

Stephen Dorril is a meticulous observer and chronicler of the security services, and in this portrait he offers the fullest possible vision of MI6’s motives, character and, crucially, what it has done and where it has been most influential. At the beginning of the Cold War, Britain was a global power literally dividing up the world. By 1992 influence abroad had been lost in the Middle East, most of Africa and large swathes of Asia, and even in Europe Britain seemed exiled and isolated. What had MI6 been doing? MI6’s post-war activities were grounded in pre-war attitudes and practices, at home in the clubs of Pall Mall and St James but little suited to a retreating post-imperial power. Britain’s management of the Cold War was in the itching hands of a mixture of frustrated former members of the wartime SOE, desperate for active military engagements, anxious reactionaries who saw more to fear from Clement Attlee’s Labour Party than from any red menace abroad, and a few socialist devotees for whom communism was the future and spying the career of choice.

Here for the first time is an operational history of MI6’s activities and attitudes in action. It is at times stirring, at other times full of bathos or low farce. Symbolic of the entire period is the lengthy and expensive operation to dig a tunnel under East Berlin to intercept Soviet information. The tunnel took years to dig, and was known to the East Germans before it became operational. When it finally went live it intercepted such a vast amount of data that it took decoders in the UK three years to sift through all the information – by which time those items that were not faked were out of date.

MI6 is a vital, essential arm of the state. It is Britain’s player at the chessboard of international intelligence-gathering. Dorril’s is a searching story of the characters and situations in which the games have been played, from the back streets of Aden to the Brandenburg Gate, the mountains of Albania to the shores of the Black Sea. This is a discreet history of half a century of international political intriguing, spying and thuggery – all in the name of intelligence.

The Profumo Affair was the political scandal of the twentieth century. The Tory War Minister, John Profumo, had been sleeping with the teenage Christine Keeler, while at the same time she had been sleeping with a Russian spy. The ensuing investigation revealed a secret world where titled men and prostitutes mixed, of orgies and S&M parties. The revelations rocked the British establishment to its core and lead to the resignation of the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. And seemingly at the centre of it all was one man, Dr Stephen Ward. Stephen Ward was many things to many people. He was a successful osteopath to an establishment list of clients. He was a part-time artist who had drawn portraits of members of the Royal Family. To some he was a 'provider of popsies to rich people'; a man who knews lots of pretty girls of flexible morals. And finally, when the scandal came crashing down on the government, he was a scapegoat, put on trial and, ultimately, hounded to his death. The Secret Worlds of Stephen Ward is the definitive investigation into the Profumo scandal and the life and mysterious death of the man at its heart.

A tour de force account of seduction, power, and betrayal in the biggest political sex scandal of its age The Profumo Affair rocked the British establishment like no scandal before or since. The Tory war minister, John Profumo, had taken up with a teenager named Christine Keeler, who was also sleeping with a Soviet intelligence agent. The ensuing inquiry revealed a hidden underworld in which men of the ruling classes and politicians cavorted with prostitutes at orgies. The revelations shook the British government and sent shock waves all the way to the Kennedy White House. The man at the center of the storm was Dr. Stephen Ward. Ward was a successful doctor to the rich and powerful, a talented artist who drew portraits of many of his famous patients and fixed up prominent men with young women. He was also a pawn, ruthlessly exploited by the intelligence agencies. When the Profumo Affair threatened the government, Ward became a scapegoat, hounded to death-and perhaps murdered. For the first time, The Secret Worlds of Stephen Ward reveals the names that could not be exposed and the truths that could not be told until now. "The research is outstanding, the whole story is told in full . . . unputdownable." -Charles Bates, former assistant director of the FBI "A convincing picture of how the Establishment closed ranks." -The Spectator "Juicy . . . admirable sleuthing." -London Review of Books "Debauchery, class antagonism and espionage, a potent formula for a bestseller." -Irish Times "An irreverent expose of outrageous scope, even by the hypocritical standards of the British Establishment." -Sunday Tribune (Ireland) "A thoroughly gripping true life thriller." -Eastern Daily Press Anthony Summers is the bestselling author of eight nonfiction books. His investigative books include Not in Your Lifetime, the critically acclaimed book about the assassination of John F. Kennedy; Official & Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover; and most recently The Eleventh Day, on the 9/11 attacks-a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for History. Stephen Dorril is the author of MI6: Fifty Years of Special Operations and other authoritative books on intelligence.