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The Secret History of the Five Eyes
- The Untold Story of the Shadowy International Spy Network, Through Its Targets, Traitors and Spies
- Narrated by: Richard Kerbaj
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
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The Secret History of the Five Eyes
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Summary
The Secret History of the Five Eyes: The untold story of the international spy network, is a riveting and exclusive narrative of the most powerful and least understood intelligence alliance, which has been steeped in secrecy since its formation in 1956.
Richard Kerbaj, an award-winning investigative journalist and filmmaker, bypasses the usual censorship channels to tell the definitive account of authoritative but unauthorised stories of the Western world's most powerful but least known intelligence alliance made up of the US, Britain, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. As Kerbaj shows, spy stories are never better than when they are true—and these span from 1930s Nazi spy rings to the most recent developments in Ukraine and China.
Through personal interviews with world leaders—including British Prime Ministers Theresa May and David Cameron—and more than 100 intelligence officials, this book explores the complex personalities who helped shape the Five Eyes. They include a Scotland Yard detective who became a spymaster and inspired the first exchanges between MI5 and the FBI. An American home economics teacher who helped create one of the most effective programmes to counter Soviet espionage. The CIA's lone officer in Budapest during the Hungarian Revolution. GCHQ's chief during the Edward Snowden intelligence leak. And the Australian politician turned diplomat whose tip-off to the FBI instigated the inquiry into Russia's meddling in the US presidential contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Richard Kerbaj is able to draw from deep inside the secret corridors of power and his unparalleled access spans all 5 countries. Some of the people he has interviewed include former GCHQ director Sir Iain Lobban, CIA director General David Petraeus, MI5 director-general Eliza Manningham-Buller, NSA director Admiral Mike Rogers, British National Security Advisor Kim Darroch, ASIO chief Mike Burgess, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's chief Richard Fadden, and Ciaran Martin, the official who oversaw Britain's assessments on whether the Chinese telecoms firm, Huawei, should have had a role in the creation of the UK's 5G network.
This audiobook will lift the lid on spy stories from across the English-speaking world, question the future of the alliance, and our place within it.
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Critic reviews
"Puts Richard Kerbaj in the front rank of modern authors on espionage. It is, by turns, gripping and shocking and sheds completely new light on the most important intelligence alliance in the world." (Tim Shipman, author of All Out War)
What listeners say about The Secret History of the Five Eyes
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- BFBG
- 06-01-24
Great details
Really enjoyed this timeline and the input from key players makes it more credible.
One fact that kept getting misrepresented was the role of ‘Scotland Yard’. It is not an organisation - it is a location for the HQ of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). Granted - MPS has a national lead (in England and Wales) for counter-terrorism but it is not a federal law enforcement agency as the FBI is.
The U.K. National Crime Agency is the nearest equivalent to the FBI BUT has no CT responsibilities.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- MJ
- 02-09-22
Good book but
Good book but very choppy narration, end of some words missing, very annoying. Perhaps just my download but spoilt the experience
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ellijay
- 10-09-22
I couldn't engage with the narration.
I'm sure the story was great but the book should have had a professional narrator.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 04-11-22
Story let down by narration
While an interesting story, the audiobook is significantly let down by the poor narration and production quality.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- 6**45
- 15-01-24
A VERY POOR SOUNDTRACK!
This is a good story ruined by the soundtrack!
Word endings missing. Some you can guess, but overall unacceptable.
Don’t know if the narrator was still recovering from a nasty ear, nose and throat infection or if the recording was just very poor. Whatever it was it’s a shame.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- boshy
- 03-12-23
Couldn’t finish it
The narration was awful (sorry), struggled with its cadence. Couldn’t get past the first few chapters.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Ed
- 09-09-22
Awful narration
Possibly the worst narration I’ve heard on any Audible. The narrator, who happens to be the author (!), has no rhythm, is difficult to hear and at times, sounds as if they are losing their voice. It’s so bad that I’ve given up listening and will seek my money back from Amazon.
Very disappointing as I was quite interested in the subject of the book.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Jonathon H.
- 17-11-23
Good story - poor narration/production
Whilst being a good story the narration makes it a very difficult listen. No real flow or rhythm. Very choppy and difficult to follow. There’s only so many times a person can hear the words ‘quotes, end quotes’ in a short time before going mad. Shame, will try the book if I find the time.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Mr Craig peggie
- 01-11-23
awful Narration
really bad, staccato delivery, difficult to enjoy as delivered in 2 to 5 word sentences
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