M: MI5’s First Spymaster

This is the amazing true story of the real ‘M’, William Melville, MI5’s founding father and the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s character in ‘James Bond’. Melville was one of the most influential counter-espionage figures of the twentieth century. From a tiny outfit based in Victoria Street, London, the counter-intelligence organisation that Melville lobbied the Government to create is today a household name and one of the world’s leading intelligence agencies. He was perfect for the job, a velvet-gloved hardman who had run Scotland Yard’s Special Branch and whose career had already taken in some of London’s great crime dramas including the “Jack the Ripper” investigations, countering Irish Republican terrorism, assassination attempts on Queen Victoria and anarchist bomb plots. Now, with the help of recently declassified records, family material and documents that have still not officially seen the light of day, the story of his Secret Service career – including the breaking of German spy rings prior to the outbreak of World War I – can finally be told.