MI5 by renowned espionage author, Nigel West. Covers the period up to the end of WW2. Review is here.

Jack Fairweather's The Volunteer last night won Costa's Biography of the Year. Hurray!" Great book.

Other book award judging panels undergo agonies of wokeness picking their winner, no doubt fuelled by endless pinot grigio. In the austere and tee-total surroundings of the Sky & Bullets office, with only cawing crows for company, there is no such vacillation. The jury’s judgment is always unanimous, for there is only one jury member.

The award you have been waiting for, and apologies because it fell a little behind schedule, is obviously the Sky & Bullets Book of the Year. There was no hesitation: (in striped jacket) it strode off the bookshelf to beat all rivals convincingly. I give you the Sky & Bullets Book of the Year:

The Volunteer,

by Jack Fairweather.

(I understand it is also on the short-list for some minor award from some coffee shop chain!).

My original review is here.

Yorkshire - A Story of Invasion, Uprising & Conflict. And nary a mention of the Roses Match! Review is here.

The Last Cambridge Spy - namely John Cairncross, from Chris Smith at The History Press. Review here.