HarperCollins seizes book from former GCHQ director Hannigan

HarperCollins has scooped Counter-Intelligence: What the Secret World Can Teach Us About Problem-Solving and Creativity by former director of GCHQ and cybersecurity specialist Robert Hannigan. 

Publishing director Joel Simmons acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Rory Scarfe at the Blair Partnership. The book will be published by HarperNonFiction on 23rd May 2024. 

Counter-Intelligence explores the role of the intelligence services in contemporary society and over the last two centuries, from Bletchley Park to GCHQ’s ongoing work. It offers a "remarkable, revealing and [providing a] never-before-seen deep dive into the world’s intelligence community". 

Hannigan established the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre in 2016 and worked as Tony Blair’s principal civil service adviser on the Northern Ireland peace process. He said: "At a time of global challenges and crises, there are lessons to be learnt from the men and women who tackled seemingly impossible problems at Bletchley Park and GCHQ, creating the world’s first digital computers. These stories are about extraordinary technologies but, above all, they are about the personalities and mindsets that created them."

HarperCollins commented: "An exhaustive and authoritative account of the history of intelligence from Bletchley Park to modern day GCHQ, this brilliant book will appeal to business readers, history readers and fans of smart thinking and big ideas around the world. We can’t wait to publish it."