Agent Cicero

This is the story of the most successful German spy of World War II, the Albanian Elyesa Bazna - an untrained opportunist. Bazna worked as a valet to the British ambassador to Turkey in Ankara. He photographed 'Top Secret' material, which he sold for vast sums to the Germans. He became the most highly paid spy in history. However he never got to enjoy his ill-gotten gains, for the British banknotes he demanded came from 'Operation Bernhard', the counterfeiting project set up by the SD, the Nazi foreign espionage department. Cicero even stumbled across 'Operation Overlord', code-name for D-Day. Because of in-fighting between various German departments, full use was never made of this. Having accessed recently released British Secret Service files - the affair has always been an embarrassment to the British - Mark Simmons brings the same pace to this remarkable story as he did with the best-selling The Rebecca Code.