The Spies of Winter

The GCHQ Codebreakers Who Fought the Cold War

By: Sinclair McKay

Narrated by: Charles Armstrong

After the Second World War, many of the men and women who had worked at Bletchley Park moved on to GCHQ: the British government's new facility established to fight the KGB. The Spies of Winter explores the early years of GCHQ as it navigated its way through a tumultuous era - from the defection of the Cambridge Five and the treachery of atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs to the collapse of the British Empire and the emergence of the US as a superpower. This is the story of the codebreakers themselves, and how they expanded the horizons of cryptography, helping to defend the nation and maintain the fragile peace in a world now under the shadow of nuclear holocaust.

©2017 Sinclair McKay (P)2017 Oakhill Publishing

Critic reviews

''As he has proved before, Sinclair McKay has no peers when it comes to the history of Bletchley Park - and its aftermath. Lucid, well-researched and rich in detail, The Spies of Winter is a valuable addition to the genre.'' ( Daily Mail)

''It is a neglected period in popular history and McKay does well to bring it to life...a readable canter over the ground for anyone unfamiliar with one of the important ways in which the second world war shaped - and continues to shape - our modern world'' ( The Spectator)