Against the looming specter of Soviet subversion in Britain's colonial possessions, the imperial intelligence service MI5 played a crucial but unseen role in passing power to newly independent national states across the globe.

Mining recently declassified records, Calder Walton reveals the missing link in Britain's post-war history. Drawing on hitherto overlooked personal papers, this is the first book to utilize records from the Foreign Office's secret archive, which contains some of the darkest and most shameful secrets from the last days of Britain's empire.

Packed with scenes straight out of a John le Carre novel, Empire of Secrets, is an exhilarating read by an exciting new voice in intelligence history.