Declassified documents reveal MI5’s secret tips for tailing a suspect The guidance is contained in a booklet issued to all new recruits to the Security Service.
The guidance is contained in a booklet issued to all new recruits to the Security Service during the Second World War.
“Screen sleuths of the secret service thriller or detective novel appeal to the uninitiated, but in actual practice there is little glamour and much monotony in such a calling as ‘observation’.
Do not use false beards, carry plenty of spare change for the tube, and if you have to tell a taxi driver to “follow that cab”, be prepared to give him a big tip.
The now-declassified document is one of the exhibits in a new exhibition focusing on the work of M15 due to open at the National Archives in Kew, west London, in the spring.
