'His information is often so precise that many people believe he is the unofficial historian of the secret services. His books are peppered with deliberate clues to potential front-page stories' (The Sunday Times)
Latest publications
Soviet and Nazi Defectors: Counter-Intelligence in WW2 and the Cold War
A well-informed defector is the most dangerous counter-intelligence commodity because it takes a spy to catch a spy. Very occasionally, an agent, especially a mole or an intelligence professional, will make a mistake and incriminate themselves, but usually it is a denunciation, a tip, or a vague clue from a defector that will provide the vital information required to expose the source of a leak. Relying on recently-declassified intelligence files and interviews with defectors, their handlers, their families, and their victims, Nigel West has analysed nine examples of wartime and postwar defections to shed new light on the phenomenon.
Classified!: The Adventures of a Molehunter
Over the past fifty years, Nigel West has been involved in almost every espionage-related investigation, breakthrough or revelation that you can think of. His molehunts have led to the unmasking of spies within MI5, MI6 and the CIA and the identification of numerous others – some of whom were crucial to the Allied victory in the Second World War and would have died without any public recognition if not for him.
Hitler's Trojan Horse
As the Second World War progressed and defeat for Hitler's Third Reich in all theatres became ever more certain, the tight Abwehr network, built so effectively by its head, Admiral Canaris, began to unravel. High-level defections to the Allies and bitter disputes with the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) added to a collapse in morale.
Hitler's Nest of Vipers
Modern historians have consistently condemned the Abwehr, Germany's military intelligence service, and its SS equivalent, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), as incompetent and even corrupt organizations. However, newly declassified MI5, CIA and US Counterintelligence Corps files shed a very different light on the structure, control and capabilities of the German intelligence machine in Europe, South America, the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
Spies who changed history
Spies have made an extraordinary impact on the history of the 20th Century, but fourteen in particular can be said to have been demonstrably important. As one might expect, few are household names, and it is only with the benefit of recently declassified files that we can now fully appreciate the nature of their contribution.
The Kompromat Conspiracy: The Truth About the Trump Dossier
The Trump Dossier caused one of the great political scandals of the era, with a former MI6 officer revealing information from what he claimed was his network of sources inside the Kremlin. He duped the FBI, conned the media, wrecked careers and tarnished the Anglo-American "special relationship". How did he do it? Who else was involved? Why did the FBI attempt a cover-up?
Cold War Spymaster
Guy Liddell was the Director of MI5's counter-espionage B Division, and from September 1939 to May 1945 he maintained a personal diary. Within its pages, details of virtually every important event that had any intelligence significance during the Second World War were recorded. These diaries have recently been declassified and published, being edited by Nigel West.
Spycraft Secrets: An Espionage A-Z
Tradecraft is the term applied to techniques used by intelligence personnel to assist them in conducting their operations and, like many other professions, the espionage business has developed its own rich lexicon. In the real, sub rosa world of intelligence-gathering, each bit of jargon acts as a veil of secrecy over particular types of activity, and in this book acclaimed author Nigel West explains and give examples of the lingo in action.
Cold War Counterfeit Spies
The Cold War, with its air of mutual fear and distrust and the shadowy world of spies and secret agents, gave publishers the chance to produce countless stories of espionage, treachery and deception. What Nigel West has discovered is that the most egregious deceptions were in fact the stories themselves.
MI5 in the Great War
In 1921, MI5 commissioned a comprehensive, top-secret review of the organisation's operations during the First World War. Never intended for circulation outside of the government, all seven volumes of this fascinating and unique document remained locked away in MI5's registry ... until now.