Strange Intelligence

Strange Intelligence

Author: Hector C. Bywater

Publisher: Biteback Publishing

Published: 2015-06-09

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 1849549389

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Hector C. Bywater was perhaps the British secret service's finest agent operating in Germany before the First World War, tasked with collecting intelligence on naval installations. Recruited by Mansfield Cumming, the first 'C' (or head of what would become MI6), Bywater was given the designation 'H2O' in what was a rather obvious play on his name - and the equivalent of James Bond's '007'. Indeed, the charming, courageous Bywater probably came as close to the popular image of Ian Fleming's most famous character as any British secret agent ever did. Originally written up in 1930 as a series of thrilling articles in the Daily Telegraph, his experiences were soon turned into a book, with the help of Daily Express journalist H. C. Ferraby, collating Bywater's espionage endeavours in one rollicking tale of secret service adventure. Although the identities of the British spies carrying out the missions in Strange Intelligence are disguised, we now know that most of them were in fact Bywater himself. Ahead of a war that was to put the British Navy to its sternest test since Trafalgar, Bywater reveals how he and his fellow agents deceived the enemy to gather vital intelligence on German naval capabilities. His account is a true classic of espionage and derring-do.


Zero Fail

Zero Fail

Author: Carol Leonnig

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2021-05-18

Total Pages: 561

ISBN-13: 0399589015

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “This is one of those books that will go down as the seminal work—the determinative work—in this field. . . . Terrifying.”—Rachel Maddow The first definitive account of the rise and fall of the Secret Service, from the Kennedy assassination to the alarming mismanagement of the Obama and Trump years, right up to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6—by the Pulitzer Prize winner and #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of A Very Stable Genius and I Alone Can Fix It NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST Carol Leonnig has been reporting on the Secret Service for The Washington Post for most of the last decade, bringing to light the secrets, scandals, and shortcomings that plague the agency today—from a toxic work culture to dangerously outdated equipment to the deep resentment within the ranks at key agency leaders, who put protecting the agency’s once-hallowed image before fixing its flaws. But the Secret Service wasn’t always so troubled. The Secret Service was born in 1865, in the wake of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, but its story begins in earnest in 1963, with the death of John F. Kennedy. Shocked into reform by its failure to protect the president on that fateful day in Dallas, this once-sleepy agency was radically transformed into an elite, highly trained unit that would redeem itself several times, most famously in 1981 by thwarting an assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan. But this reputation for courage and excellence would not last forever. By Barack Obama’s presidency, the once-proud Secret Service was running on fumes and beset by mistakes and alarming lapses in judgment: break-ins at the White House, an armed gunman firing into the windows of the residence while confused agents stood by, and a massive prostitution scandal among agents in Cartagena, to name just a few. With Donald Trump’s arrival, a series of promised reforms were cast aside, as a president disdainful of public service instead abused the Secret Service to rack up political and personal gains. To explore these problems in the ranks, Leonnig interviewed dozens of current and former agents, government officials, and whistleblowers who put their jobs on the line to speak out about a hobbled agency that’s in desperate need of reform. “I will be forever grateful to them for risking their careers,” she writes, “not because they wanted to share tantalizing gossip about presidents and their families, but because they know that the Service is broken and needs fixing. By telling their story, they hope to revive the Service they love.”


In the Secret Service

In the Secret Service

Author: Jerry Parr

Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Published: 2013-09-20

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 1414388918

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Meet Jerry Parr. In 1981, he was the agent standing next to Ronald Reagan when John Hinckley, Jr., stepped out of the crowd, intent on killing the president. In the Secret Service is an adrenaline-filled ride through the life of the agent who saved Ronald Reagan’s life. Jerry spent much of his life as a silent eyewitness to history, with a gun at his fingertips. What motivates a man who is ready at a moment’s notice to step into the path of a bullet? In In the Secret Service, you’ll also follow Jerry’s inner journey. That journey led him from the halls of the powerful to the streets of the poor in Washington, D.C., to the mountain passes of war-torn El Salvador to help orphans. You won’t want to miss this insider’s perspective on the Secret Service and a look into the heart of a man who was—and is—ready to sacrifice himself for another. At times heart-pounding, at times heartrending, this richly textured memoir of a Secret Service Agent will first move you to the edge of your seat, then to the depths of your soul.


Standing Next to History

Standing Next to History

Author: Joseph Petro

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2007-04-01

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1429907851

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A former Secret Service agent revisits his twenty-three-year career, including his time as Ronald Reagan’s bodyguard, in this “engaging” memoir (Publishers Weekly). Joseph Petro served for twenty-three years as a special agent in the United States Secret Service, eleven of them at the White House and four of those as the man on the shoulder of Ronald Reagan. From his days as an investigator in the field, to his time as the man on whom the life of the president depended, Petro’s journey through history is a singular look inside the most discreet law enforcement agency in the world; an unparalleled insight into Ronald and Nancy Reagan; plus an up-close-and-personal view of the late Pope John Paul II, whom Petro protected during his historic and extraordinary ten-day tour of the United States in 1987. The cast of characters in these never-before-told stories ranges from the Reagans and the Pope, to Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Mikhail Gorbachev, Fidel Castro, Margaret Thatcher, François Mitterrand, the Shah of Iran, George H. W. Bush, Dan and Marilyn Quayle, Henry Kissinger, Nelson Rockefeller, Gerald Ford, and would-be assassins. “A close-in view of how ‘the Great Communicator’ charmed critics and won loyal followers.” —The Christian Science Monitor “A fascinating portrait of Secret Service life.” —Library Journal


Code Name Pauline

Code Name Pauline

Author: Pearl Witherington Cornioley

Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Published: 2013-08-01

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1613744900

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Pearl Witherington Cornioley, one of the most celebrated female World War II resistance fighters, shares her remarkable story in this firsthand account of her experience as a special agent for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Told through a series of reminiscences—from a difficult childhood spent in the shadow of World War I and her family's harrowing escape from France as the Germans approached in 1940 to her recruitment and training as a special agent and the logistics of parachuting into a remote rural area of occupied France and hiding in a wheat field from enemy fire—each chapter also includes helpful opening remarks to provide context and background on the SOE and the French Resistance. With an annotated list of key figures, an appendix of original unedited interview extracts—including Pearl's fiancé Henri's story—and fascinating photographs and documents from Pearl's personal collection, this memoir will captivate World War II buffs of any age.


The Kennedy Detail

The Kennedy Detail

Author: Gerald Blaine

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2011-11-15

Total Pages: 449

ISBN-13: 1439192995

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Documents the events leading up to and following the assassination of the thirty-fifth president as revealed by the Secret Service agents who were present, in an account that also draws on letters written by Jackie Kennedy in the immediate aftermath and other previously undisclosed sources.


Memoirs of a Revolutionary

Memoirs of a Revolutionary

Author: Victor Serge

Publisher: New York Review of Books

Published: 2012-05-01

Total Pages: 577

ISBN-13: 1590174518

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A New York Review Books Original Victor Serge is one of the great men of the 20th century —and one of its great writers too. He was an anarchist, an agitator, a revolutionary, an exile, a historian of his times, as well as a brilliant novelist, and in Memoirs of a Revolutionary he devotes all his passion and genius to describing this extraordinary—and exemplary—career. Serge tells of his upbringing among exiles and conspirators, of his involvement with the notorious Bonnot Gang and his years in prison, of his role in the Russian Revolution, and of the Revolution’s collapse into despotism and terror. Expelled from the Soviet Union, Serge went to Paris, where he evaded the KGB and the Nazis before fleeing to Mexico. Memoirs of a Revolutionary recounts a thrilling life on the front lines of history and includes vivid portraits not only of Trotsky, Lenin, and Stalin but of countless other figures who struggled to remake the world. Peter Sedgwick’s fine translation of Memoirs of a Revolutionary was abridged when first published in 1963. This is the first edition in English to present the entirety of Serge’s book.


Memoirs of a British Agent

Memoirs of a British Agent

Author: R. H. Bruce Lockhart

Publisher: Frontline Books

Published: 2011-04-30

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 1848326297

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When first published in 1932, this memoir was an immediate classic, both as a unique eyewitness account of Revolutionary Russia and as one man’s story of struggle, and tragedy set against the background of great events. Aged 25, Lockhart became the British Vice-Consul to Moscow in 1912. With revolution in the air, it was dangerous, decadent posting. The 'Boy Ambassador' became an eyewitness to pivotal events and in 1918 was charged with establishing a diplomatic understanding with the Bolsheviks, to ensure that Russia remained in the war against Germany. It was a precarious mission: Whitehall could not be seen support revolutionaries; Lockhart grew wary of his masters’ secret machinations; while Lenin and Trotsky's cordial relations with the British agent never quite dispelled their mistrust of the nation he represented. When Lockhart met Moura Budberg, who became the great love of his life, he was in an increasingly vulnerable position. In September 1918 he would be falsely accused of a counter-revolutionary plot to overthrow the Bolsheviks, and sent to the Loubianka. His account even inspired a Hollywood movie. From his evocative descriptions of revolutionary Moscow, where the champagne flowed as the bourgeoisie trembled, to his audiences with Trotsky and his brushes with death, this is a vivid, unique memoir.