From memoirs and academic texts to conspiracy-laden exposes and spy novels, the intelligence services' secrecy has never stopped people from writing about espionage.

Now, this is the first introduction to these official and unofficial histories.

Each chapter showcases new archival material, looking at a particular book or series of books and considering issues of production, censorship, representation and reception.

Contributors include: Richard Aldrich, intelligence historian; Nicholas Dujmovic, CIA Staff Historian; Matthew Jones, novelist; Jo Wippl, Former CIA operations officer; Keith Jeffery, author of the first official history of MI6 and Chapman Pincher, journalist.