i want to welcome keith jeffery who has come to talk about his new book. professor jeffrey is a professor of british history at queen's university in belfast, and he was commissioned as i said by the british secret intelligence service. the secret intelligence service is the proper name as i understand it is come in mi6, is what was a cover name that was adopted at the beginning of the second world war and it just kind of stuck. and i think james bond has done his part in getting into our american language. the book is a history of the first 40 years indian 1949 dashing -- ending in 1949. all the activities post-1949 are still too close back in our history that to allow those activities to be accessed by the public, would compromise agents, compromise the lives of agents. so we're going to comment this evening, having evening of disguises and invisible ink and forgery, which were the stock in trade of mi6. and one of the members of mi6, he wasn't, i don't think he was strictly a member but he was a friend of many members, was even fleming. and ian fleming

>> the keith jeffery britishhistory professor at queen's university belfast examines the british secret intelligence service, mi6 from 1909-1949. he recalls the relationship between mi6 and the white house as well as its covert operations inside the united states. he profiles members of the service which include authors graham greene and somerset maugham. keith jeffery discusses his book at an hour-long event hosted by politics and prose bookstore in washington, d.c..