Interested in business of spies? Author of British MI5 history is coming to Raleigh

Updated Nov. 13, 2009 at 7:55 a.m.

Interested in business of spies? Author of British MI5 history is coming to Raleigh

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Note: The Skinny blog is written by Rick Smith, editor and co-founder of Local Tech Wire and business editor of WRAL.com.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – One of the world’s foremost spymasters is coming to Raleigh on Saturday, but he won’t be in disguise or carrying out a covert mission.

If you have any interest in learning more about the business, the technology, the people and the art of spying, don’t miss the chance to meet him face-to-face.

Christopher Andrew, one of the world’s premier historians of espionage in the Cold War and history professor at Cambridge, will be appearing at Quail Ridge Books to discuss and sign copies of his critically praised “Defend the Realm – The Authorized History of MI5.”

Granted unrestricted access in an unprecedented move by the British secret service, Andrew is generating worldwide headlines with the 1,000 page epic. He’s coming to Raleigh as a special guest of Raleigh Metro Magazine Editor and Publisher Bernie Reeves. The signing begins at noon. The shop is located in North Ridge Shopping Center.

Wrote Max Hastings, an accomplished author, journalist and historian in the Sunday Times:“The outcome is weighty, measured and compelling … with this book, the author has done a formidably good job for both the service and the public interest … I find it hard to disbelieve much he asserts or denies … his narrative offers a feast for students and politics.”

Published in the U.K. as “In Defence of the Realm,” the book traces the history of MI5 to its creation in 1909 through the ongoing war against terrorism.

Three earlier books by Andrew, written in collaboration with former Soviet spymasters, are as Reeves as described them “the seminal texts” about the KGB and Cold War. The titles: “KGB: The Inside Story,” and two volumes known as the Mitrokhim Archives – “The Sword And the Shield” and “The World Was Going Our Way.”

This isn’t Andrew’s first visit to the Triangle. He was the keynote speaker at the Reeves-created Raleigh International Spy Conference in 2003.

I met Andrew at that event when I was a senior editor at Metro and where I continue to be a contributing senior writer. If you have an interest in spycraft or just want to hear Andrew discuss in an open forum some of the secrets from the black world of covert intelligence, you should come as well.

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