THE murky world of British intelligence was the intriguing topic of Kidderminster-born and bred author Stephen Dorril's talk.

The man responsible for several investigative books, including MI6: Fifty years of Special Operations, spiked some myths but shared some equally bizarre nuggets he had dug up since becoming a full-time writer on the intelligence agencies in 1986.

He revealed the subject had fascinated him since his school days - and added he "selfishly" wrote books for his own pleasure and "hoped" people would read them.

A self-proclaimed left winger in an arena dominated by the right, Dorril said the real cost of the domestic agency MI5, its foreign equivalent MI6 and the electronic spy centre GCHQ was three times the annual £1 billion the government claimed.

In a friendly and informal presentation he went on to claim the public was getting poor value for money from this network - bigger now than ever - and listed a series of failures, including the total lack of intelligence about the revolutions in Prague in 1968 and Tehran in 1979.

Contrary to popular beliefs, he said he did not think MI6 had carried out any assassinations in the last 40 years - but he said the "Q" of James Bond fame had existed, a devout Christian whose faith sat uneasily with his repeated attempts to kill Nasser in the 50s by sending him poisoned chocolates.

He also aired an argument MI6 was at least partly responsible for plunging the world into the Cold War after it angered Stalin by sending guerrillas into Europe in 1944 to foil a potential Soviet invasion of Britain.

And Dorril was scathing of the repeated failure of MI6 and the CIA to deal with the "disposal problem" of militias which they had armed and trained - including Bin Laden and his henchmen in Afghanistan in the 1980s - after they had served their uses.

Following the talk he outlined his revolutionary credentials to the Shuttle/ Times & News by saying he believed in "open intelligence" which would involve all interested parties, including journalists and academics, sharing information.

The dedication required to research his books and the legal obstacles he has faced to publish the information clearly warranted the respect he received.

In all it was even an enlightening discussion - which while not uniformly critical - was more at home on intelligence failures than successes. FA