1. The Double Cross System by John Masterman
The definitive account of recruiting and running double agents.

2. The Man Who Never Was by Ewen Montagu
Perhaps the greatest wartime deception ever carried out.

3. Spycatcher by Peter Wright
The story, which Margaret Thatcher tried to ban, of the inner workings of the spy world.

4. Anthony Blunt: His Lives by Miranda Carter
The making, and unmasking, of a very British spy.

5. The Mitrokhin Archive by Christopher M. Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin
An in-depth portrait of the KGB's Foreign Intelligence Service, derived from files smuggled out by a defector in 1992.

6. Garbo:The Spy Who Saved D-Day by Mark Seaman
Juan Pujol, a Spanish anti-fascist codenamed “Garbo” by MI5, was a highly effective double agent.

Ben Macintyre is the author of Agent Zigzag: Lover, Traitor, Hero, Spy (Bloomsbury)

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