Ian Cobain – författare

The official line is clear: the UK does not 'participate in, solicit, encourage or condone' torture. And yet, the evidence is irrefutable: when faced with potential threats to our national security, the gloves always come off. Drawing on previously unseen official documents, and the accounts of witnesses, victims and experts, prize-winning investigative journalist Ian Cobain looks beyond the cover-ups and the equivocations, to get to the truth. From WWII to the War on Terror, via Kenya and Northern Ireland, Cruel Britannia shows how the British have repeatedly and systematically resorted to torture, bending the law where they can, and issuing categorical denials all the while. What emerges is a picture of Britain that challenges our complacency and exposes the lie behind our reputation for fair play.

'As British official records are still "going missing", the significance of Cobain's work only increases' David Olusoga, author of Black and British'In an astonishing book, the writer Ian Cobain reveals the mass destruction of records and archives, and the false memory it has left us with' Andrew MarrIn 1889, the first Official Secrets Act was passed. Since then a culture of secrecy has flourished. As successive governments have been selective about what they choose to share with the public, we have been left with a distorted and incomplete understanding not only of the workings of the state but of our nation's culture and its past. Ian Cobain reveals how key moments in British history since the end of WWII have been manipulated by these official secrets. We follow the decades-long attempts to conceal the existence of Bletchley Park and its successor, GCHQ. We learn how a series of astonishing wars were fought during the 1960s and 1970s remained unreported. He also tells of the government's hidden links with terrorist cells during the Troubles, and reveals the state's peacetime surveillance techniques, not to mention its cynical manipulation of the criminal justice system and 'freedom of information'.Drawing on previously unseen material and rigorous research, The History Thieves is a gripping story of how a complex bureaucratic machine has been created by the British state, allowing governments to evade accountability and bury their secrets. 'An engrossing account of how government officials burned the records of imperial rule as the British empire came to an end' Book of the Week, Guardian'An important book which deserves to change the way we see our recent past...' Daily Mail