The Spy Who Came in From the Circus: The Secret Life of Cyril Bertram Mills

The Spy Who Came in From the Circus: The Secret Life of Cyril Bertram Mills
by: Christopher Andrew (Author)
Publisher:Biteback Publishing
Publication Date: 18 April 2024
Language:English
Print Length:336 pages
ISBN-10:1785908219
ISBN-13:9781785908217
Book Description
For almost half a century, Bertram Mills Circus was a household name throughout Britain among both children and adults. Cyril Bertram Mills, circus director and son of the founder, was one of the best-known and most influential personalities in the country’s entertainment business.But for forty years, Cyril Mills also pursued a top-secret, wide-ranging career in British intelligence, obtaining the best aerial intelligence on Nazi rearmament for MI6; recruiting GARBO, the best double agent of the Second World War; and working part-time during the Cold War ‘for MI5 or 6 or both without being paid a penny’.Remarkably, no word of Mills’s secret career appeared in public until he was over eighty. Nobody suspected that the glamorous world of the pre-war circus had been an extraordinary rehearsal for the top-secret arena of surveillance and deception. In this incredible true story, Christopher Andrew, former official historian of MI5 and bestselling author, in collaboration with ex-KGB officers, of histories of Russian intelligence, brings to life one of the most surprising and fascinating careers in British espionage.
About the Author
About the Author Christopher Andrew is Emeritus Professor of Modern and Contemporary History and former chair of the Faculty of History at Cambridge University. He is founding co-editor of Intelligence and National Security, established the renowned Cambridge Intelligence Seminar and is the former chair of the British Intelligence Study Group. He also served for ten years as honorary air commodore of 7006 Squadron (Intelligence) Royal Auxiliary Air Force and has been a visiting professor at Harvard, the University of Toronto and the Australian National University and president of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His books have appeared on bestseller lists around the world and he has presented numerous radio and TV documentaries.