Book Launch: Secret Alliances with Tony Insall

Overview

Join us for an exciting book launch featuring Dr Tony Insall and Sir John Scarlett, followed by a drinks reception.

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The King's Centre for the Study of Intelligence is delighted to host the launch of revised book Secret Alliances and bring its new revelations to life.

A concise presentation by the author, Dr. Tony Insall, will introduce fresh archival insights into Anglo‑Norwegian resistance cooperation during WWII - drawing on previously unseen papers, including the diaries of Finn Nagell - before opening into a high‑level conversation with Sir John Scarlett, former Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service. Together, they’ll explore the intimate (and often fraught) relationships among British, Norwegian, and Soviet services, and the wartime foundations of today’s close security partnership. Former Chief Historian of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Gill Bennett, will moderate this engaging discussion.

Please join us for a small drinks reception to follow.

Secret Alliances: The Wartime Origins of Anglo‑Norwegian Security Cooperation

The first edition of Secret Alliances (published in 2019) provided a comprehensive overview of Anglo-Norwegian resistance cooperation during WW2. Drawing on previously unpublished archival material to highlight the roles of the British secret services SOE and SIS, Bletchley Park and the Russian NKVD, it provided significant new insights into the relations of the two governments and their secret agencies as they sought to develop effective and widespread operations to damage and frustrate the extensive (more than 400,000 troops) German forces occupying Norway – a resistance campaign which stands comparison with those elsewhere in occupied Europe. This provided the basis for the extremely close defence and security relationship which continues today. The revised and extended version draws on a wealth of new material, particularly in the archive of Finn Nagell, responsible in London for Norwegian intelligence operations. These documents – which also include sections of his diary – describe frankly the intimate exchanges which he conducted with his British counterparts and some of his own agents, and the frustrations of dealing with the Russians, who demanded much, providing little in return, and whose handling of two Norwegian agents in a ‘joint operation’ which was anything but joint, led to their deaths.