Fans pick 100 books like Turncoat

Perhaps the finest and least well-known novel to come out of the First World War. Imagist poet Richard Aldington takes his own experiences of the home and Western Fronts and turns both barrels on the sanctimony of Edwardian society and its parade of sycophants, socialites, and fools. Unusually, it is a book by a poet that resists turning war into poetry. Unafraid to use realistically coarse military language, it divided the critics at the time and has divided readers ever since. It is a howl of rage that speaks across the century, a timeless reminder that there is no romance in the needless carnage of war.

While researching early English history for my own book, I came to the miserable conclusion that I would first have to read Bede’s. To be honest the thought of paint drying had more allure. Yet, when I did finally buckle down to read (what is in fact five books) it was a complete revelation. Bede takes the reader on a very entertaining ride through early English history but it is much more than that. Indeed, the most striking thing about the work is its obsession with detail and accuracy. Drawing on the extensive library at Jarrow, Bede made a huge effort to ‘get it right’. Yes, there are biases and yes there are some curious obsessions, but in fighting fake news and fake history this 8th-century masterpiece remains an example to us all.   

If ever there was a book that should be read for all the wrong reasons, then H.E. Marshall’s bizarre children’s book is it. Once a standard text on Edwardian nursery shelves this ‘storybook’ of English history typifies all that is wrong with Britain’s backward-looking, exceptional view of itself. Starting with the tale of how Brutus of Troy tossed some giants off the white cliffs at Dover (yes really!) and ending in 1905, the book sets out an inevitable narrative arc of British top-doggery while plagiarising Shakespeare’s plays and passing them off as history along the way. In any sane country it would be a curiosity but in 2008 it was reprinted by the Civitas think tank and has been promoted by Conservative politicians ever since on that basis that ‘this is the way to teach British history.’ There's a case, set out in my own book, that Marshall did more… show more.

This very short book is a miniature masterpiece. Though written in 1976, it is startling in its relevance to our age and times setting out the five principles of stupidity and why they matter. Without ruining the book for you, Cipolla’s central thesis is that ‘stupidity’ exists in the same quantity throughout all tiers of society. So, you have the same degree of stupid authors as stupid barristers, doctors, tree surgeons, and plumbers and that this is unfortunate because: “a stupid person is the most dangerous kind of person.” Ultimately the book explains why, throughout history, we have elevated stupid people to fame and power. And boy isn’t it necessary to understand that one in our age.

Intelligence was collected in multiple ways by all sides during World War II. The British housed German prisoners at a site called the London Cage, which was located in an upper-class London neighborhood. The London Cage was later used as a Nazi war criminal detention site. While in residence, the German prisoners underwent interrogation, in some cases what we would now call “enhanced interrogation” and in others while under the influence of “truth drugs.” As Fry’s book reveals, the post-9/11 “enhanced interrogations” were not the first of its kind. I recommend this book because it demonstrates the lengths to which governments, in this case the British government, would go during wartime to gather actionable intelligence about an enemy.

The Enigma story and Bletchley Park are now legitimate subjects for academic study, but modern books are necessarily written by people without first-hand experience of wartime Intelligence work. As a publisher, I have always been keen to record the experiences of those people personally involved in such things, and Welchman was not just a leading codebreaker at Bletchley Park throughout the whole war, he was also instrumental in transforming a random collection of a hundred academics into a non-stop production line of codebreaking and Intelligence, employing over ten thousand people. This, our best-selling book, continues to intrigue readers worldwide.

A thrilling personal account by the brilliant cryptographer, Leo Marks, who was only 22 when employed by the SOE. It was Marks who gave the special codes to famous SOE agents like Violette Szabo, Noor Inayat Khan, and Nancy Wake before they left for the field. An insight into how the code war between Germany and England played out, often with disastrous consequences.

The war was also operated at an unseen level and J. C. Masterson was in the midst of it–espionage. The Brits added another to it–double cross, in which they provided known German agents with false information, and were successful in convincing the Germans that D-Day landings would take place in the Pas de Calais.

The book is an authoritative account of their activities and the great nicknames they used to pull it off. Names like Snow, Celery, Biscuit, Charlie, Midas, Dragonfly, Tricycle, and what their responsibilities were. They also used letter-writing agents who were part of their deception to get the Germans to retain a Panzer division in the Bordeau area, away from the landing area. You’ll marvel at their cleverness.

I know the book intrigued me and I’m sure you’ll come away from it amazed as I was.

The official history of MI5 similarly provides the first authorised account of another secret organisation. The book provides a far-reaching account of clandestine activities since its nascent beginnings as part of the Secret Service Bureau in 1909, and across a period of 100 years. It offers a rare insight into some of the eyebrow-raising operations in counter-espionage, as well as an administrative overview, for an intelligence agency that is responsible for Britain’s security at home. It gives the first inside account from it archives, from Bolshevik threats and Communist subversive activities in the 1920s in Britain to Hitler’s spies in the 1930s, to the Double-Cross deception and agents of World War Two. It goes beyond the Second World War to name some of the traitors and spies of the Cold War. There is a clear understanding publicly for the first time of the sheer scale of surveillance of enemies or… show more.

This is a new and interesting exploration of the reasons behind the disastrous Second World War Anglo-Canadian Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942.

O’Keefe investigates newly available British archival material to reveal the designs British naval intelligence had on the port of Dieppe and how the resulting raid revolved around the capture of a highly important German Enigma encryption device and codebooks. 

These materials were desperately needed to produce ULTRA intelligence, vital for Allied efforts in the Battle of the Atlantic.