For a hundred years GCHQ - Government Communications Headquarters - has been at the forefront of British secret statecraft. Born out of the need to support military operations in the First World War, today it is the UK's biggest intelligence, security and cyber agency and a powerful tool of the state.





Based on unprecedented access to documents in GCHQ's archive, many of them hitherto classified, this is the first book to authoritatively explain the history of one of the world's most potent intelligence agencies. The major international episodes of the last century - the retreat from empire, the Cold War and the Falklands - become fully explicable only in the light of the secret intelligence record. Written by a world-leading expert in intelligence and strategy, Behind the Enigma reveals the fascinating truth behind this most remarkable and enigmatic of organisations.