Former British PM Margaret Thatcher was desperate to stop ex-MI5 officer Peter Wright from publishing his tell-all book Spycatcher - so much so, the media frenzy around the government's efforts to ban the book led to its publication in the US and beyond, guaranteeing it a spot on the bestsellers' list. Wright retired a millionaire and the leaks and exposés from former spies kept on coming.

From The Room Where It Happened to Operation Dark Heart, SPYSCAPE looks at some of the unique strategies governments have employed over the years to stop you reading about government secrets - not always with success.

THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED (2020) by John Bolton‍

Six months after former National Security Adviser John Bolton gave his manuscript to the White House for review, the Trump administration tried to block its release arguing Bolton was endangering US security. For good measure, Donald Trump also Tweeted that Bolton was a ‘wacko’ and a ‘sick puppy’. A US federal judge cleared the book for publication. The US Justice Department criminal investigation opened in 2020 was dropped after President Joe Biden was sworn in.

FIRE & FURY (2018) by Michael Wolff‍

Wolff’s gossipy tell-all describes a dysfunctional presidency perpetually in chaos - zoning in, at one point, on the day FBI Director James Comey was fired. (Comey heard about it on TV.) Not all of Wolff’s claims are accepted as truth, of course.Trump said he didn’t authorize Wolff’s White House access and didn’t speak to him for the first book. Trump lawyer Charles Harder sent a cease-and-desist letter threatening a libel lawsuit in an effort to stop publication. Fire & Fury sold out on its first day of release as a result. By 2021, Trump was speaking to Wolff for Landslide, Wolff’s third book in the trilogy.
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SPYCATCHER (1987) by Peter Wright

Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government waged a two-year campaign to stop Spycatcher’s publication in England but it was eventually published in Australia and the US. The uproar guaranteed Spycatcher a top spot on The New York Times bestseller list. Peter Wright's book includes speculation that a former MI5 chief was a Soviet mole (an official investigation cleared him) and discussion about how the domestic spy service may have conspired to topple PM Harold Wilson’s government. Britain’s Cabinet Office was still blocking access to some of the Spycatcher files decades after its publication.
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OPERATION DARK HEART (2010) by US Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer

The US Army Reserve suggested modest changes to Shaffer’s memoir about his time in an Afghanistan intelligence post and 200 review copies were sent to critics. The US Defense Department then stepped in, paying $47,000 to buy and destroy the first print run of 9,500 copies. Journalists raced to get a copy of the next censored print run to see what was blacked out (mainly the author’s cover name and mentions of the National Security Agency). Oddly, censors also didn’t like the abbreviation SIGINT for signals intelligence. The extreme vetting ensured the book was a hit.

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HARRIET THE SPY (1964) by Louise Fitzhugh‍

It's not just governments that want to control what you read. Harriet the Spy, about a bossy 11-year-old who spies on neighbors and other targets, was challenged at American school board meetings in the ‘60s, NPR reports. Some feared Harriet would encourage children to disrespect their parents. Kids loved Harriett and the uproar, however. A generation of rebellious children formed Harriet the Spy clubs, dressed like Harriet, and spied on their parents.
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JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH (1961), Roald Dahl

‍James is an English orphan who enters a magical peach and has adventures. While that may sound warm and fuzzy, school censors didn’t like the sometimes macabre content. They also weren’t pleased that the author was an ex-fighter pilot recruited by a British intelligence service to spy on the US. Many state schools banned the book, creating even greater interest.

GREEK MEMORIES (1932) by Compton Mackenzie‍

In 1916, Compton Mackenzie was an Athens-based officer for MI1(c) (which later became MI6) running spies and informers. His memoir recounts the somewhat scattered approach taken by HQ in London and he reveals the identity of MI6 chief Sir Mansfield Cumming, known as ‘C’. The Scottish national was prosecuted for incorporating classified intel into Greek Memories but not jailed. A redacted version was published, but the original wasn’t available until 2011, decades after his death.
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THE BIG BREACH (2001) by Richard Tomlinson 

Tomlinson was imprisoned in 1997 after giving a book synopsis to an Australian publisher but even jail couldn’t stop the ex-MI6 officer. He published The Big Breach in Moscow and blogged about his experiences. His book alleged MI6 had a license to kill - later confirmed by MI6’s chief - and detailed his training, work in Bosnia, and disciplinary procedures. MI6 eventually decided Tomlinson could return to the UK and unfroze his book royalties, The Sunday Times reported. Tomlinson chose to work as a pilot in France instead.

ANIMAL FARM (1945) by George Orwell

Animal Farm was a target of censors and spies. The satire revolves around farm animals who rebel, hoping to create an equal society. Instead, they end up living under Napoleon, a dictatorial pig. The USSR saw it as a critique of its politics and banned the book. The UAE briefly banned Animal Farm because of its talking pigs, seen to be against Islamic values. The CIA, meanwhile, turned it into a propaganda tool and funded an animated movie of the same name although spies changed the book's ending.
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SOFT TARGET (1989) by Zuhair Kashmeri and Brian McAndrew

Soft Target is written by two journalists who investigated the Air India Flight 182 bombing and claimed Indian intelligence agencies manipulated the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canadian Security Intelligence Service. The book was met with skepticism by some in Canada but it remains in circulation. India, on the other hand, has banned Soft Target outright for more than 30 years, ensuring its reprint in 2005.

HOW TO READ DONALD DUCK (1971) by Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart

How to Read Donald Duck is a critique of Disney characters from a Marxist viewpoint. The comics are seen as capitalist propaganda promoting US corporate and cultural imperialism. Initially, the book flourished under Salvador Allende’s government in Chile. It was identified with revolutionary politics. By 1973, when General Augusto Pinochet was installed in a Chilean coup d'état supported by the US and CIA, the book was burned and its writers forced into exile. The publicity helped sell 700.000 copies worldwide.
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THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1962) by Ian Fleming

Australia initially banned Fleming’s The Spy Who Loved Me (1957) - the ninth novel in the Bond series - because of ‘heightened sexual writing’. Fleming wrote to Michael Howard of Jonathan Cape publishers to explain: "I had become increasingly surprised to find my thrillers, which were designed for an adult audience, being read in schools, and that young people were making a hero out of James Bond. So it crossed my mind to write a cautionary tale about Bond, to put the record straight in the minds particularly of younger readers. The experiment has obviously gone very much awry." The ban certainly didn’t hurt worldwide sales, however.
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THE STRAITS IMPREGNABLE (1916) by Sydney Loch

Wary of the strict Australian censors, Sydney Loch published his ‘fictionalized autobiography’ about his time in the First Australian Imperial Force in the WWI Gallipoli Campaign. The first 2,000 copies sold quickly. A second edition was printed with a note stating: "This book, written in Australia, Egypt and Gallipoli, Is true". The censor ordered all of the second edition copies pulped. In 2007, the book was found in the National Archive and republished as To Hell and Back. The work is now regarded as having important insight into Australia’s history.

THE NEGATIVE ASSET Jock Kane‍

We’ll never know what The Negative Asset reveals. Margaret Thatcher’s government got a court injunction to ban the tell-all book in the 1980s. Kane spent more than 25 years at GCHQ, Britain’s signals intelligence-gathering spy agency, but left GCHQ to work as a school bus driver. His second book, The Hidden Depths of Treachery, is also banned. Kane was never arrested or charged.
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THE IRISH WAR (1998) by Tony Geraghty

Geraghty’s hardback was already published when he was charged with breaching the UK's Official Secrets Act. The Ministry of Defense then tried to stop the paperback publication of his book, which details military/political tactics and technology used during Northern Ireland’s Troubles. Geraghty’s lawyer argued there was nothing in The Irish War that the Provisional IRA didn’t know or hadn’t worked out 20 years earlier. The charges were dropped. The paperback was released in 2000 - an immediate sensation.