The British Secret Service has been cloaked in secrecy and shrouded in mythsince it was created a hundred years ago. Our understanding of what it is tobe a spy has been largely defined by the fictional worlds of James Bond andJohn le Carre. THE ART OF BETRAYAL provides a unique and unprecedented insightinto this secret world and the reality that lies behind the fiction. It tellsthe story of how the secret service has changed since the end of World War IIand by focusing on the people and the relationships that lie at the heart ofespionage, revealing the danger, the drama, the intrigue, the moralambiguities and the occasional comedy that comes with working for Britishintelligence. From the defining period of the early Cold War through to themodern day, MI6 has undergone a dramatic transformation from a gung-ho,amateurish organisation to its modern, no less controversial, incarnation.Gordon Corera reveals the triumphs and disasters along the way. The granddramas of the Cold War and after - the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, theCuban Missile Crisis, the 11 September 2001 attacks and the Iraq war - are thebackdrop for the human stories of the individual spies whose stories form thecentrepiece of the narrative. But some of the individuals featured here, inturn, helped shape the course of those events. Corera draws on the first-handaccounts of those who have spied, lied and in some cases nearly died inservice of the state. They range from the spymasters to the agents they ran totheir sworn enemies. Many of these accounts are based on exclusive interviewsand access. From Afghanistan to the Congo, from Moscow to the back streets ofLondon, these are the voices of those who have worked on the front line ofBritain's secret wars. And the truth is often more remarkable than thefiction.