Empire of Secrets: British Intelligence, the Cold War and the Twilight of Empire

By Calder Walton

The winner of the 2013 Longman-History Today Book Prize is the gripping and largely untold story of the role of the intelligence services in Britain’s retreat from empire.

Against the background of the Cold War, and the looming spectre of Soviet-sponsored subversion in Britain’s dwindling colonial possessions, the imperial intelligence service MI5 played a crucial but top secret role in passing power to newly independent national states across the globe.

Mining recently declassified intelligence records, Calder Walton reveals this ‘missing link’ in Britain’s post-war history. He sheds new light on everything from violent counter-insurgencies fought by British forces in the jungles of Malaya and Kenya, to urban warfare campaigns conducted in Palestine and the Arabian Peninsula. Drawing on a wealth of previously classified documents, as well as hitherto overlooked personal papers, this is also the first book to draw on records from the Foreign Office’s secret archive at Hanslope Park, which contains some of the darkest and most shameful secrets from the last days of Britain’s empire.

Packed with incidents straight out of a John le Carré novel, Empire of Secrets is an exhilarating read by an exciting new voice in intelligence history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Jan 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9780007468423

Calder Walton

Calder Walton is a leading expert among a new generation of intelligence historians. He has published widely on intelligence history, reviewing books for the Times Literary Supplement, and contributing to a number of books on British foreign policy and international relations. For six years, between 2003 and 2009, he was one of the principal researchers on Christopher Andrew’s unprecedented authorised history of MI5. This is his first book.

Reviews for Empire of Secrets

[blinkingsam · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Perfidious Albion! Calder Walton is a professional historian now working as a barrister. This excellent book - complete with footnotes; bibliography and comprehensive index - looks at the history of various intelligence services (MI5, MI6, Special Branch to name but three) . When one considers the breadth of the British Empire and the collapse of that empire post WWII it is most revealing to see the hand the British had in establishing secret services throughout Africa, the Sub-continent, the Caribbean, Cyprus, the Middle East. It comes as no surprise that the various secret services share information. Walton has accessed a great deal of material which has only become available since the opening of archives by the Russians. The writing style is a little ponderous and at times Walton gives the impression of being of the establishment but that might be my prejudices coming through. Above all else it is a "good read" and worthy of the four star rating..

[mnickjw · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Ultimately disappointing for me as the author's style made interesting material become tedious. He writes with little sympathy for the circumstances that existed at the time and makes judgements on historical prejudices that seem to stem from modern prejudices.

[bookmarkaussie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A book on a little known topic, British intelligence and it's role in the last two decades of the British Empire. The first chapters on the pre-war and WWII era were quite revealing and helped to set the scene for the post war crises within the Empire. I thought that this book achieved two things, firstly it highlighted the role that British intelligence made to the independent countries of the Commonwealth. Secondly it demonstrated the lack of learning that each of the post war conflicts brought. Palestine, Malaya, Kenya, Cyprus and Aden all saw the same broad problems and the same relearning of lessons that should have already have been learnt. While the book doesn't cover Northern Ireland at all, it is clear that those problems continued there. An excellent book that brings to the forefront the role of British Intelligence within the Empire and Commonwealth up until the mid 1960's.

[elimatta_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Author tells us, repeatedly, that this is the first book to use recently revealed archival records to show the role played by British secret services in the end of the British empire, post 1945. Very well documented through patient work with archives, and an important topic.