Richard Tomlinson was recruited by MI6, the British foreign intelligence service, during his senior year at Cambridge University. He quickly gained the trust and confidence of one of the world's most effective intelligence organisations. MI6 relied on Tomlinson to smuggle nuclear secrets out of Moscow, to run an undercover operation in Sarajevo while the city was under siege, and to infiltrate and dismantle a criminal group that sought to export chemical weapons capabilities to Iran.

Four years after joining MI6, Tomlinson's career was abruptly terminated for reasons that are still unclear. When he tried to fight the unjust dismissal, government accused him in breaching the Official Secrets Act and imprisoned him in one of the Britain's toughest maximum security prisons.

Following his release, MI6 kept up its pressure, hounding Tomlinson, launching a smear campaign in the international press, and pressuring its allies around the world to illegally arrest and expel him.

The British intelligence service has used threats of legal action to force publishers in several European countries to abandon plans to publish this book.