Book and Film Recommendations

Disney, Hulu, National Geographic Series | 26 February 2026

This series is a collection of unbelievable, untold and world-changing stories that reveal what it takes to be a spy beyond the red line of danger. Told from inside the intelligence community by the spies themselves, each mission-driven story propels audiences from one cliffhanger to the next, immersing them in never-before-heard adventures. From the real-life Jason Bourne to the hidden maneuvers surrounding Osama bin Laden’s elimination and a minute-by-minute account of being taken behind enemy lines, every episode brings viewers as close as possible to the world of espionage. With unprecedented access to some of the most elite intelligence officers and the missions that defined them, explore the diverse, dedicated and often deadly work of the world’s most effective spy agency. This is “Inside the CIA: Secrets and Spies.”

Simon Willmetts, et al. | Georgetown University Press | 02 March 2026

Intelligence agencies are traditionally understood as cloistered entities. Hidden behind a veil of secrecy, they conduct their activities relatively free from public scrutiny, and their assessments are ideally detached from the cultural and political biases that pervade our fallen world.

Today, however, intelligence services have come in from the cold. They feature routinely in our popular culture and our political debates. Our ideas about them, from "deep state" conspiracy theories to popular tropes drawn from spy fiction and cinema, have even influenced the outcome of major elections. Likewise, as John Le Carré once put it, intelligence officers do not sit "like monks in a cell" but are themselves products of the social, political, and cultural domains they inhabit. 

Spies, Culture, and Society brings together some of the world's leading experts on intelligence and its wider impact to explore different aspects of this reciprocal relationship between spies, culture, and society. The topics covered include the influence of spy films and novels, interactions between spies and journalists, the historical roots of the "deep state" conspiracy theory, Western intelligence and imperialism, and more. Together, these chapters showcase a new way of understanding intelligence agencies as fundamentally integrated into the cultures, societies, and political systems that they seek to analyze and protect.

Offering meaningful insights for intelligence studies scholars, Cold War historians, and media scholars, this collection offers a new paradigm for understanding intelligence agencies as fundamentally integrated into the cultures and societies they seek to protect.

Anthony Wells | Casemate, 24 August 20

UK/US intelligence and the wider Five Eyes community of Canada, Australia and New Zealand is primarily about one main thing: Relationships. In this remarkable book, Anthony Wells charts fifty years of change, turmoil, intense challenges, successes and failures, and never-ending abiding Five Eyes relationships. He traces the development of institutions that he firmly believes have sustained, and indeed may have saved, Western democracies and their allies from those ill disposed to the value system and culture of our nations. More than a chronology of the UK/US intelligence community during this fifty-year period, it is also a personal insight into key relationships and the abiding strength of the United States and the United Kingdom and its Five Eyes allies relationships. The author is the only living person to have worked for British Intelligence as a British citizen and US Intelligence as a US citizen. As a fully trained and accredited security officer for two US intelligence organizations, Anthony has relied on his own extensive unclassified collection of papers, personal notes and diaries, as well as his family library for source material to create this book.

“Few people are as uniquely well equipped as Anthony Wells to write an account of these close and special relationships. His penetrating and informed analysis offers us all hope for the continuance of an alliance which makes the world a safer place." —Vice Admiral Sir Jeremy Blackham, Knight Commander of the Bath, editor, The Naval Review.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Foundations

Chapter 2: The Sources, Methods & Analysis that unite UK-US intelligence in a Common Cause

Chapter 3: UK-US intelligence Structure & Organization in the post World War Two Era

Chapter 4: UK-US intelligence in the latter days of the Cold War, and the post Cold War Era

Chapter 5: UK-US intelligence & September 11, 2001, and the Aftermath

Chapter 6: UK-US intelligence Roles, Missions, & Operations 1990-2018, and a Review of the Post World War Two Era

Chapter 7: UK-US intelligence and Contemporary & Future Threats

Chapter 8: UK-US intelligence and a new Global Strategy to meet the Challenges of the 21st Century  

Tim Willasey-Wilsey | Blink Publishing, 02 December 2025

In the world of espionage, where the accounts of renowned spies often dominate the narrative, this is a rare gem - an untold story of a completely unknown spy. Baron William de Ropp, a Baltic German aristocrat, wasn't just any ordinary spy; he was MI6's top secret agent in Nazi Germany from 1931 to 1939, managing to escape Berlin just before war broke out. This unsung hero had direct access to Adolf Hitler and an inside track on the Nazi regime.His reports, shrouded in secrecy, had the power to shape British policy toward Germany in a pivotal period of history.

The Spy and the Devil is a riveting tale of espionage, intrigue, and the untold impact of one man's secret mission on the course of history. A journey into the shadows of Nazi Germany, where a forgotten British spy worked tirelessly to avert catastrophe, and discover the secrets that history almost left behind. Bill de Ropp's story has never been published in full before, adding an extra dimension to what is, by any standard, the account of a very remarkable man.