For students of intelligence, professional and amateur

The book is important – unavoidable, really – for anyone with a serious interest in signals intelligence. Altho the title is catchy, it’s not for casual readers who just want an entertaining history of the subject. For that purpose, I recommend David Kahn’s Seizing the Enigma.

Ferris’s long book is necessarily more skimpy on operational details after 1945 than before it. Even the serious student will be disappointed by the thinness of detail for that period – and yet understand why the detail must be thin. Nonetheless, the descriptions of Cold War methods and resource allocations are illuminating. The section on the Falkands War is particularly helpful.

Also, Ferris usefully reaches back into the pre-GC&CS history of British signals intelligence (and letter interception).

The reading performance was only so-so. The reader often stressed the wrong words in sentences, making comprehension a little more difficult for the listener. Also, a listener is distract when realizing from such mistakes that the reader does not understand what is being read.

I bought a printed copy of the book while listening, knowing that I’d want to go back and search for the most useful revelations.

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Flaccid

This book is a secret GCHQ weapon designed perfectly to bore its critics to death

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