Go spy the land - George A. Hill

Before espionage entered the era of modern technology, there was the age of George Alexander Hill: a time of swashbuckling secret agents, swordsticks, and secret assignations with deadly female spies. The daring escapades of some of the first members of Britain's secret service are revealed in this account of perilous adventure and audacious missions in imperial and revolutionary Russia. First published in 1932, this lost classic offers fascinating portraits of a world unfathomable to those growing up against a backdrop of cyber espionage, and of true-life characters whose exploits were so extraordinary that they have entered the realm of legend.