Fakers
A Top-Secret Tale of Phantoms and Forgeries on the Disinformation Front Line
Published on 14. May 2026
Book
Hardback
368 pages
978-0-19-891700-7 (ISBN)
Description
Intrigue, espionage, and deception. The truth behind 8,000 once top-secret files, so explosive their authors never dreamed they would be released.
Fakers reveals the rise and fall of the mavericks running Britain's Cold War forgery empire. Their secret mission was audacious: to disrupt and discredit adversaries across the world using phantom groups, fake sources, and counterfeit documents.
The leader was a remarkable character, wrestling with personal and professional dilemmas: Hans Welser. An Austrian refugee and one-time MI5 suspect interned behind barbed wire, Welser was a great survivor who rose to become special operations adviser to the Foreign Office, working hand in glove with MI6. His second in command was an eccentric, hard drinking, and high-flying journalist-turned-propagandist called John Rayner. Brought out of semi-retirement, for one final posting. Their team of bowler-hatted refugees, voluble ex-journalists, trailblazing women, and licentious literary sorts navigated loyalty and betrayal - both professionally and romantically - from the diplomats' attic, in the most sensitive part of the Foreign Office's secret propaganda department.
The newly declassified files expose an array of plots, some comically absurd and others dangerously controversial. The forgery empire impersonated everything from hippies and ghosts to Islamists and ballet composers in their campaign to smear hostile politicians, stir tensions among adversaries, and even stymie the career of a contentious British historian. All took place against a high stakes backdrop - both overseas as states competed beneath the looming threat of nuclear war and in the corridors of power at home where grey-suited bureaucrats circled, keen to shut down the team for good.
With timely insight into how propaganda works and how to respond to disinformation, Fakers is a thrilling journey into a secret world where nothing was as it seemed.
Fakers reveals the rise and fall of the mavericks running Britain's Cold War forgery empire. Their secret mission was audacious: to disrupt and discredit adversaries across the world using phantom groups, fake sources, and counterfeit documents.
The leader was a remarkable character, wrestling with personal and professional dilemmas: Hans Welser. An Austrian refugee and one-time MI5 suspect interned behind barbed wire, Welser was a great survivor who rose to become special operations adviser to the Foreign Office, working hand in glove with MI6. His second in command was an eccentric, hard drinking, and high-flying journalist-turned-propagandist called John Rayner. Brought out of semi-retirement, for one final posting. Their team of bowler-hatted refugees, voluble ex-journalists, trailblazing women, and licentious literary sorts navigated loyalty and betrayal - both professionally and romantically - from the diplomats' attic, in the most sensitive part of the Foreign Office's secret propaganda department.
The newly declassified files expose an array of plots, some comically absurd and others dangerously controversial. The forgery empire impersonated everything from hippies and ghosts to Islamists and ballet composers in their campaign to smear hostile politicians, stir tensions among adversaries, and even stymie the career of a contentious British historian. All took place against a high stakes backdrop - both overseas as states competed beneath the looming threat of nuclear war and in the corridors of power at home where grey-suited bureaucrats circled, keen to shut down the team for good.
With timely insight into how propaganda works and how to respond to disinformation, Fakers is a thrilling journey into a secret world where nothing was as it seemed.
Reviews / Votes
With Fakers, Cormac delivers a gem of intelligence historyright at the intersection of deeply researched and relentlessly entertaining. The pluck, creativity, and persistence of the men and women working in the UK's underappreciated Information Research Department jump off the pages, leaving readers with plenty of youll never believe this actually happened stories to pass on. Truly a joy to read. * Dr. David Priess, former CIA officer and author, The President's Book of Secrets * Rarely am I surprised by intelligence revelations, but Rory Cormac, known for his knack of illuminating the world of covert intelligence, has uncovered a story that is both fresh and instructive for today. Fakers tells long-hidden Cold War tales and reveals a fascinating cast of odd-ball wizards of the dark arts. Still confronting Moscows dirty tricks, today's intelligence practitioners will see that their forbears faced the same challenges. Spy thrillers have nothing on Fakers. * John Sipher, former senior CIA officer and cofounder Spycraft Entertainment * A fun and fascinating dive into the deep history of propaganda and fakery-including its absurdities-which has shaped our world today. * Gordon Corera, author of the Spy in the Archive, co-host of Rest is Classified, and former BBC Security Correspondent * Fascinating, evocative, and timely. A thoroughly researched, entertaining and brilliantly enlightening read. * Danny Wallace, author of Somebody Told Me * You've heard of the Cold War Space Race and the Arms Race, now welcome to the Lies Race. Rory Cormac takes you into the top-secret depths of the vast deception operations between the British and the Soviets. A world where Monty Python meets Le Carre, with a revelation on every page that will transform how you see our history. * Peter Pomerantsev, author of This is Not Propaganda * Fakers provides a fascinatingly fresh take on the propaganda battles of the Cold War, whilst adding new dimensions to our understanding of fake news and its historyhighly recommended. * Jame Crossland, author of Rogue Agent * Magnificent. A rip-roaring history of Britain's once top-secret covert propaganda department is finally brought to light. Using declassified files, Rory Cormac delves into the world of deception, skilfully retrieving the voices of the brilliant misfits who weaponised their typewriters to influence and undermine Cold War targets. Fakers is masterly and matchless. * Claire Hubbard-Hall, author of Her Secret Service: The Forgotten Women of British Intelligence * Fakers is the real thing. Agent Cormac has pulled off a much-needed, tricky operation, conducted through deep research in the files, to shed light on one of the most mysterious outfits of Britains post-war secret state. Here are classic Cold War charactersfighting not with boyish James Bond gizmos, but typewriters, pamphlets and brilliant ideas. And not just in the cliched streets of Mitteleurope but the Middle East and Africa. For anyone trying to make sense of how we ended up amid todays disinformation mind games, this tour of the wilderness of mirrors that came before is essential reading. * Phil Tinline, author of Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax That Duped America and Its Sinister Legacy * Fakers is a great story, unearthing the intriguing hidden tale of how British political warfare continued into the Cold War era. Rory Cormac's excellent research draws on many formerly classified files to reveal the complex characters who ran British disinformation campaigns around the world. While the members of the IRD may have struggled to understand and to influence the new world they worked in after the war, this book illuminates the bigger question of how Britain too was struggling to find its new role. * Terry Stiastny, author of Believable Lies * A razor-sharp anatomy of Cold War deception. No other book shows so vividly, through superb storytelling, how the UK, its friends, and foes competed to shape Cold War reality...essential reading for anyone trying to understand disinformation and propaganda past and present. * Daniela Richterova, author of Watching the Jackals * Cormac's work in unearthing top-secret documents is colourful, at times suggestive of Graham Greene's darker entertainments. Yet this was no game. Words and slogans - if taken up by rebels in troubled lands - could have a devastating impact. * Sinclair McKay, The Spectator * brilliant...a thorough, pacy and racy run through the history of the Information Research Department (IRD) * Paul McNamee, Ink Blot Substack *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
10 black and white images
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 168 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
611 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-891700-7 (9780198917007)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Rory Cormac is a Professor of International Relations at the University of Nottingham and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He writes about covert operations and secret statecraft, and is the author or co-author of six books, including How to Stage a Coup (2022), Disrupt and Deny (2018), and The Secret Royals (2021). He has presented television documentaries aired in the UK, US, and Australia, his research and commentary writing have featured in media outlets worldwide including The Spectator, and he has testified before UK and Australian parliamentary inquiries on subversion, disinformation, and electoral interference.
Content
Acknowledgements Prologue: Down the Rabbit Hole Part I: Forgery Wars 1: The Secret Annexe 2: Anatomy of a Forgery 3: Drawing a Bow 4: A New Front Line 5: Loyalty and Betrayal 6: The Master Whisperer Part II: The Worldwide Firehose 7: Arab Brothers 8: Loyal African Brothers! 9: Publicising the Tanzanian <"Plot> " 10: The Brothers go to Kenya 11: The 'Slimy Leech' of Indonesia 12: Shadows over Sukarno Part III: Hubris 13: Coup, Killings, and the Voice from the Well 14: The Stiletto and the Sausage Stick 15: Welser vs Diallo Telli vs Rhodesia vs Franco 16: In the Name of God 17: Send in the Hippies 18: Out with the Old? Part IV: Diversification and Downfall 19: Blunting Black Power 20: An Existential Crisis 21: Courtroom Dramas 22: The Poison Chalice 23: All Eyes on Ulster 24: Fading Ink 25: Loose Ends Postscript Bibliography