The Quest for C

Mansfield Cumming and the Founding of the Secret Servic e

By: Alan Judd

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Paperback | 6 November 2000

At a Glance

Paperback
512 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.0 x 13.0 x 3.5

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$31.75

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A fascinating and unique history of the launch of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service through the unusual life of its founder, Mansfield Cumming.

Sir Mansfield Cumming, the founder of the British Secret Service and the original 'C', has until now been a shadowy figure. For this authorised biography, the Secret Intelligence Service has released to Alan Judd, Cumming's voluminous diaries, which have never been seen outside the Service and will be put back into storage in perpetuity when Judd has used them.
The result is likely to be the most sensational biography of the season, and the definitive account of how MI5 and MI6 - the models for all subsequent secret services all over the world - were set up.
Cumming signed himself 'C', was referred to as such in Whitehall and always used green ink, traditions maintained to this day. His life not only makes riveting reading but casts fascinating light on the development of the Secret Service and its influence on the twentieth century.

Industry Reviews

A glowing biography, written by a singularly well-informed author who understands the difficulties that attend on secret work in Whitehall, and displays how dazzlingly they could be overcome by a single man really devoted to his job. Mansfield Smith-Cumming, the first official head of the secret intelligence service, had an all but impossible task when he started work in 1909; but built up trust in himself where it mattered, and assembled so formidable a body of spies and saboteurs to assist a British victory in the Great War of 1914-18 that he was knighted soon after it closed. He died in the early 1920s; all his successors, following his example, sign their minutes 'C'. Alan Judd shows great skill as his biographer, not least in saying honestly when the record is so scanty that he does not know the answer to questions a reader might put. (Kirkus UK)

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