In this gripping book, Nick Barratt delves into the murky waters of the British and Russian secret service. Tracing the story of his great uncle Ernest Holloway Oldham&;known as ARNO to his "friends" in the Russian secret service&;we are taken on a journey through the dark secrets of agents, special agents and double agents, during a period of history when everyone had something to hide. After serving in the British army during World War I, Ernest was drafted into the Communications Department of the UK Foreign Office, where he was charged with delivering encrypted messages to embassies and consulates around the world. Over the course of the next decade or so, Ernest was drawn deeper and deeper into the paranoid underworld of pre-Cold War espionage and into a double-life that became the darkest of secrets.