Fakers is a thrilling journey into a secret world that reveals the rise and fall of the mavericks running Britain’s Cold War forgery empire.

Subtitled A Top-Secret Tale of Phantoms and Forgeries on the Disinformation Front Line, the book is written by Rory Cormac, professor of International Relations at the University of Nottingham. It delves into an audacious secret mission to disrupt adversaries across the world by using phantom groups, fake sources and counterfeit documents.

Newly declassified files expose a tale of intrigue, espionage and deception involving an odd-ball team of characters led by Hans Welser, an Austrian refugee and one-time MI5 suspect, and John Rayner, a hard-drinking journalist.

It all took place against a high-stakes backdrop, both overseas and in the Foreign Office’s secret propaganda department, as states competed beneath the looming threat of nuclear war.

“A world where Monty Python meets Le Carre with a revelation on every page that will transform how you see history.”

Peter Pomerantsev, author of This is Not Propaganda