This is an auction for THE SECOND OLDEST PROFESSION: SPIES & SPYING IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, by Phillip Knightley.

Amazon.com review:

"FIVE STARS!!!! In "The Second Oldest Profession," Phillip Knightley has penned a compelling account of the ongoing saga of the British Secret Intelligence Service, a once-'non-existent' organization that was gestated appropriately enough in the fantasies of Rudyard Kipling's Great Game and pre-World War I spy novels. These, the author notes, ignited a frenzy of hysteria against various enemies, both actual and imaginary. As SIS became a reality (and other agencies and nations joined in the intelligence rush) the fantasy became compounded--often careening out of control--due to the deception that is, necessarily, embedded in the core of espionage. Phillip Knightley's books are eminently readable, and "The Second Oldest Profession" is no exception. The book, which serves as a reader's guide to British intelligence agencies (e.g., SIS, MI5, SOE) with stopovers at the Abwehr, the KGB, and the CIA, is fascinating, both to the reader approaching the topic for the first time and to the "addict," who cannot get enough of the subject. With considerable wit (e.g., "KGB: Dzerzhinsky's Pride, Stalin's Prejudice"), Mr. Knightley rounds up the usual suspects--a cast of "thousands" whose names have become household words (at least, in some households). In relating the notable triumphs and even more notable disasters of the intelligence world, Phillip Knightley never fails to inform and to whet the interests of his readers."

More very favourable reviews on Amazon.com.

Large format paperback 2003.

516 pages + photographs.

Near new condition.

The cost of shipping is $4.95 (ordinary post) or $5.95 (tracked mail). If you are on rural delivery and want tracked mail, the shipping cost will be $8.95.

There is of course no charge for shipping if you collect this book from my shop in Palmerston ?North following the auction.

Payment within seven days, please.