First `official` MI6 history book to be released in 2010

07-Dec-2005 • Bond News

A Northern Irish academic will write the first official history of MI6 foreign spy service, delving into secret files with the agency's permission to shed some light on its mysteries - reports Reuters.

In the latest in a series of moves to make it seem more accessible, the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) -- the agency's official name -- selected Keith Jeffery, professor of British history at Queen's University Belfast, to write the book and granted him access to its archive.

"I feel like a child in a sweetie shop," Jeffery said on Wednesday, adding he believed he was the first outsider to be granted permission to look at the archive.

Jeffery said he had been given permission to view all the relevant secret files in order to write his account, which will cover the period from the service's creation in 1909 to the early Cold War in 1949.

"I will be able to throw light on certain parts of history that have not had light shone on them before," he said.

Cambridge-educated Jeffery, the author of several books on the history of Ireland, acknowledged he would be working under "some necessary security constraints" but insisted he would have the freedom to explore anything he found in the archives.

"I'm allowed to look at everything, that's my understanding, and I'm allowed to write anything -- my views are my own," he told Reuters. "I wouldn't have taken it on without a free hand."

The reason for the 1949 cut-off date is to protect information still considered especially sensitive.

"This appointment marks another progressive move by SIS, this time by producing an authoritative history which is intended to appeal both to professional historians and the general public," Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who approved Jeffery's selection, said in a statement.

Earlier this year, the SIS turned to the Internet to recruit members, the first time it has publicly advertised for staff, having previously relied largely on discreet sweeps of university campuses or approaches to members of the intelligence branches of the armed services.

MI6's activities have been widely portrayed in fiction and on celluloid, most famously in the adventures of Ian Fleming's suave and ruthless secret agent James Bond.

The service has previously said that much of what has been written about it has been inaccurate and misleading.

Belfast-born Jeffery, who admits to being a Bond fan in his youth, is due to deliver his book for publication in late 2010.

Thanks to `Kyvan` for the alert.