Molehunt: Searching for Spies in Mi5 [Hardcover]

Nigel West (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The concept of the deep-cover agent with seemingly impeccable credentials was, according to West, almost unknown in England until the Burgess-MacLean-Philby defections rocked the British establishment, virtually paralyzing its counterintelligence apparatus, and leading to internal-security investigations of previously unthinkable suspects. In this densely packed, clarifying study, the author traces the course of the great "molehunt" that lasted several years and reached its apparent climax in the highly publicized suspicion that Sir Roger Hollis, director of the British Security Service from 1956 to '65, was a Soviet agent. He agrees with the prevailing view that, of Hollis and his deputy, Graham Mitchell, "one was certainly a traitor." In his detailed review of the evidence, West ( The Sigint Secrets ) all but proves that Hollis, though perhaps incompetent, was innocent of treason. Although less surehanded in his exploration of the evidence against Mitchell, he nevertheless exposes the remarkable series of setbacks that occurred under Mitchell's tenure as a deputy-director of M15 and his attempts to gloss over them. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Spy buffs are fascinated by the possiblity that the highest-ranking traitor within British intelligence has never been identified. All the suspects are now dead, but books such as this still top England's best-seller lists. First published in 1987, this revised U.S. edition details the decades-long hunt begun after the flight of Burgess and Maclean in 1951. Peter Wright's Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer (Viking, 1987) suggested that MI5 head Roger Hollis was the top Soviet mole. John Costello's Mask of Treachery ( LJ 12/1/88) nominated Guy Liddell. The author, an espionage historian, makes a case for Graham Mitchell, Hollis's deputy. This range of candidates reflects the shaky, circumstantial basis for each theory. This book is intriguing, nonetheless, and is suitable for larger espionage collections.
- Gregor A. Preston, Univ. of California Lib., Davis
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 254 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1St Edition edition (February 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068807653X
• ISBN-13: 978-0688076535
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,348,620 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in Lambeth, Nigel West was educated at a Roman Catholic monastery and London University. While still a student he worked as a researcher for the authors Ronald Seth and Richard Deacon, who both specialised in security and intelligence issues.

In 1977 Nigel joined BBC TV's General Features Department to make television documentaries, and he worked on the SPY! and ESCAPE! series. His first book, written with Richard Deacon, was based on the first series and was entitled SPY! Thereafter he was commissioned to write a wartime history of the Security Service, MI5, which was published in 1981, and since then he has averaged one book of non-fiction a year, including The Secret War for the Falklands released in January 1997.

He has concentrated on security and intelligence issues and his controversial books invariably hit the headlines. He was injuncted by the Attorney-General in 1982 and was served a Public Interest Immunity Certificate signed by the Home Secretary in 1987. He was voted 'The Experts' Expert' by a panel of other spy writers in the Observer in November 1989 and The Sunday Times has commented:

'His information is so precise that many people believe he is the unofficial historian of the secret services. West's sources are undoubtedly excellent. His books are peppered with deliberate clues to potential front-page stories.'

Nigel West often speaks at intelligence seminars and has lectured at both the KGB headquarters in Dzerzhinsky Square and at the CIA headquarters in Langley. He is now a member of the faculty at the Centre for Counterintelligence & Security Studies in Washington DC (www.cicentre.com).

His greatest coup was tracking down the wartime double agent GARBO, who was reported to have died in Africa in 1949. In fact West traced him to Venezuela, and they collaborated on GARBO, published in 1985. He was also the first person to identify and interview the mistress of Admiral Canaris, the German intelligence chief, and he was responsible for the exposure of Leo Long and Edward Scott as Soviet spies.

His recent titles include Crown Jewels, based on files made available to him by the KGB archives in Moscow; VENONA, which disclosed the existence of a GRU spy-ring operating in London throughout the war, headed by Professor J B S Haldane and the Hon. Ivor Montagu: and The Third Secret, an account of the CIA's intervention in Afghanistan. In Mortal Crimes, published in September 2004, investigates the scale of soviet espionage in the Manhattan Project, the Anglo-American development of an atomic bomb.

In 2005 he edited The Guy Liddell Diaries, a daily journal of the wartime work of MI5's Director of Counter-Espionage. He also published a study of the Comintern's secret wireless traffic, MASK: MI5's Penetration of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and a counter-intelligence textbook, The Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence.

He has lectured at the Smithsonian institute in Washington DC, speaks regularly for Hilton Special Events, on the QE2 and QM2, and for Seabourn, Regent Crystal Cruises. His topics include: GARBO: The Spy Who Saved D-Day; VENONA: The Greatest Secret of the Cold War; The Cambridge Five: The True Story of Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Kim Philby. Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross; Double Agents of World War II; The History of the British Secret Intelligence Service; James Bond: The Fact and fiction of 007; Combatting Terrorism: How the IRA were beaten in Northern Ireland; Enigma: Bletchley Park and the Codebreakers; Molehunt: The Search for Soviet Spies.

In 2003 Nigel West was awarded the US Association of Former Intelligence Officers' first Lifetime Literature Achievement Award.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not insightful - just a dull, unoriginal historiography, May 1, 2001

By 

Not my real name guy (Midwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Molehunt: Searching for Spies in Mi5 (Hardcover)

1 1/2 Stars.

Nigel West is one of the more prolific authors on espionage history, particularly the history of Soviet espionage in Britain, but do not mistake quantity for quality or accuracy. West is no more accurate of an historian than most other sensationalistic British journalists-turned-authors who write on this topic.

The cover of this book would lead one to believe that West did a substantial amount of research, interviewing, digging in still- secret British records, etc..., about the possible high level Soviet spy in Britain's domestic intelligence agency, MI-5, but that would be an erroneous conclusion. I do not believe that West obtained any information regarding the alleged mole that does not appear in Peter Wright's much better autobiography, Spycatcher.

Essentially, Wright determined, after years of working as one of MI-5's chief counterintelligence officers, that MI-5 had so many gaffs and foiled operations against the Soviets that the only explanation was a high level Soviet spy within the organization. Wright narrowed his choices down to two men, Sir Roger Hollis, the Director General of MI-5 during the 1950's and 1960's, and his deputy, Graham Mitchell. Both men were guilty of substantial incompetence in their positions, both had access to all information contained in Wright's list of proofs of Soviet penetration into the service and both had connections to the Soviet Union in their past. Wright suspected Hollis in particular and was able to show somewhat more circumstantial evidence that he was the Soviet spy. West arbitrarily decided that Mitchell was the spy, but fails to explain why or substantiate that opinion. However, perhaps only half or so of this book is devoted to the topic of the mole - the remainder is essentially a history of the attempts for British authors, including Wright and journalist Chapman Pincher, to publish a history on the issue of Soviet penetration of MI-5 in light of British government attempts to suppress such information under the Official Secrets Act. Unless the reader is interested in the legal battle concerning this governmental censorship (which is rather dull), one can skip the entire second half of this book.

So was there a mole, and if yes, who was it? Christopher Andrews and his two KGB defector collaborators in KGB: The Inside Story, and The Sword and the Shield, deny that there was ever a mole in MI-5. We will simply have to wait and hope that in due time, the KGB's successor will release further information before its files on espionage in Britain are destroyed and the secret is lost forever. One certainly won't find the answer in Molehunt and I cannot recommend it for any purpose.