This book tells the story of Maxwell Knight, animal lover, jazz enthusiast, and one of MI5's greatest spymasters. The primary focus is on Fascism and Communism prior to, and at the start of, World War Two, and a great deal of the book covers M's attempts to infiltrate these groups, the intelligence he received, and what he ultimately did with it. It's certainly entertaining and Knight makes for a very interesting subject - he raised a bear in his London home - and, though Hemming has clearly done his research, classified documents and/or a simple lack of concrete evidence leads to quite a few 'may haves'. Still, it's fascinating to read about how Knight turned ordinary people into masterful spies, and how this lead to the downfall of movements that threatened the wartime effort. Knight and his team of agents had a huge influence on the outcome of World War Two and surely deserve to be household names; reading about their various operations in this book, it's clear they risked a lot. An engaging read, recommended for anyone interested in espionage.

Maxwell Knight may have been the inspiration for M in James Bond. His career as a spy handler before and during the Second World War provides a revealing angle on fascism, communism and the response of the Establishment to both. His work, and that of his agents, read like a spy drama but are all the better for not having the absurd excess of Bond. Curiously, at the end of his spying career, Knight became a children's TV presenter drawing on his life-long love of exotic animals. A real page-turning read.