M: MI5's First Spymaster

By Andrew Cook

William Melville was one of the most influential counter - espionage figures of the twentieth century. This work presents the true story of the real M, William Melville, MI5s founding father and the inspiration for Ian Flemings character in "James Bond".

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Aug 26, 2011
• ISBN: 9780752469614

Andrew Cook

ANDREW COOK is an author and TV consultant with a degree in History & Ancient History. He was a programme director of the Hansard Scholars Programme for the University of London. Andrew has written for The Times, Guardian, Independent, BBC History Magazine and History Today. His previous books include On His Majesty’s Secret Service (Tempus, 2002); Ace of Spies (Tempus, 2003); M: MI5’s First Spymaster (Tempus, 2006); The Great Train Robbery (THP, 2013); and 1963: That Was the Year That Was (THP, 2013).

Reviews for M

[john257hopper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I found this book a bit disappointing. While it purports to be a biography of the first M in the secret services, William Melville, he didn't feature hardly for much of the book, coming across, appropriately enough, as a shadowy figure. We learn about his humble background in Ireland and his moving to England, his early career as a bobby on the beat in South London arresting burglars and embezzlers, then his rise as a senior detective until his ostensible retirement in 1903 when he became involved in secret work, retiring from that in 1917 from ill health, and dying soon afterwards. This is really much more a history of late 19th century policing, an era of great change, and of security threats in the 1870s to 1900s, the initial period dominated by Fenians and anarchists, then later by German spies, though most of these were rather pathetic figures and much of the spy fever was imaginary. What struck me was how contemporary some of this felt: bombs on the London underground in 1883 and the debates in Parliament, the press and society about acceptable boundaries between curtailing liberties and guaranteeing security.