Spycatcher. Peter Wright and Paul Greengrass. 1987.

Peter Wright was a key figure in British intelligence for nearly a quarter of a century. This book, which the British government has gone to great lengths to keep from being published, is a memoir that recounts his extraordinary career in that wilderness of mirrors, the world of espionage.

Peter Wright initially joined Britain’s Secret Service known as MI5, in 1955 in the capacity of the organisation’s principal scientist, and devoted himself in the early years to the invention of various gadgets for use in the espionage trade. Along the way, he demonstrated a brilliant flair for the art of counterintelligence. He went on to become, for nearly two decades, the central figure in Britain’s relentless and sometimes humiliating efforts to detect and expose Soviet espionage. From that vantage point, the reader is treated to an unique perspective on the likes of Philby, Maclean, Burgess, Blunt and a host of other exposed spies and alleged defectors.