GCHQ, Richard Aldrich
GCHQ, Richard Aldrich
List: $44.99 | Sale: $31.50
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GCHQ

Author: Richard Aldrich

Narrator: Peter Noble

Unabridged: 25 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/11/2019

Synopsis

FULLY UPDATED CENTENARY EDITION ‘An important book’ Max Hastings, ‘An intriguing history of covert surveillance … thoroughly engaging’ GCHQ is the largest and most secretive intelligence organisation in the UK, and has existed for 100 years – but we still know next to nothing about it. In this ground-breaking book – the first and most definitive history of the organisation ever published – intelligence expert Richard Aldrich traces GCHQ’s development from a wartime code-breaking operation based in the Bedfordshire countryside into one of the world leading espionage organisations. Packed with dramatic spy stories, also explores the organisation’s role behind the most alarming headlines of our time, from fighting ISIS to cyberterrorism, from the surveillance state to Russian hacking. Revelatory, brilliantly written and fully updated, this is the crucial missing link in Britain’s intelligence history.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Vasil on August 08, 2010

A really good look in the history of the GCHQ, and actually in the presence of it and some of the similar to it organizations like the NSA in the world history. The book can give the opposite view on a lot of issues, and shows a lot of the reasons why NSA and the similar organizations oppose the pub......more

Goodreads review by Peter on August 31, 2011

Even the asides in this book are packed full of interesting facts that have become public but just not well known enough. One that particularly sticks in the mind is the mention of the banker Roberto Calvi who was found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in 1982. Do read what the book says about thi......more

Goodreads review by Michael on October 05, 2019

Meaty, comprehensive, eye-opening.......more

Goodreads review by Alexa on June 17, 2018

There will be a review on the blog shortly. There's so much to talk about.........more

Goodreads review by R on March 10, 2020

Haven't finished the whole book, as it's very dense. Most suited to those with a pre-existing base line knowledge of some of the history involved. I came to this simply from having enjoyed a few spy non fiction and fiction books, i.e. about the Cambridge 5 etc. and wanted to explore in a little more......more

Quotes

‘ and he tells this story well…, but also the appalling vulnerability of every society in thrall to communications technology as we are.’ Max Hastings, ‘An intriguing history of covert surveillance … ’ Daily Telegraph ‘’ Economist ‘. He paints the broad picture, but also introduces fascinating detail’ ‘This is , which is as reliable as anything ever is in the twilight world of intelligence-gathering. Yet there is nothing dry about it. Aldrich knows how to write for a wider audience, while avoiding the speculations, inventions, sensationalism and sheer silliness of so much modern work on the subject’ ‘Aldrich has taken a decade to produce the first substantial account of the agency's history, and . He has dug up a massive amount of fascinating detail’ , Book of the Week ‘Richard Aldrich, an accomplished cold war intelligence historian, has taken a decade to produce ’ Duncan Campbell,

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