TOP SECRET. THE STASI SPY BOOK BY SIMON MENNER. PUBLISHED IN 2013 AFTER

HE SPENT TWO YEARS DEEP IN THE ARCHIVES OF THE,

THEN DISBANDED, EAST GERMAN SECRET POLICE. 300,000 PEOPLE WERE

SPYING ON A POPULATION OF ABOUT 18 MILLION. THAT

IS LIKE ONE IN SIXTY!

Like a wolf in cheap clothing. This is the cover of the first edition. No text. Just that inscrutable 'Who me?' look.

We would have gone with this pic as the cover. We can hardly find the words to explain that wig but we are pretty certain that whoever was responsible for it went on to create the Sylvanian Families Hedgehogs set. 

Fifteen minutes like this to ensure proper fixture of the moustache. 

This man has a shirt pattern to match the pixels on his face.

This is a brilliant pic from the how to pose as a Western tourist gallery. Two cameras (affluent), tilted head and pointing, probably about to give it a Fonzie 'Aaayyy'.



There is a section devoted to secret signals. Sadly, the Stasi files did not say what the signals are supposed to mean - although we would guess that this translates as, 'I seem to have reached a dead end.'



The book is full of examples of East German teenagers' bedrooms. They were looking for tell-tale signs of Western sympathising traits. This teen probably realised they could only get shot once when deciding to paste up fifty-five Madonna pictures.



No they were not spying on Tracey Emin. This is a Stasi photo of an unmade bed before they searched it. Then they would use the Polaroid to put eveything back together and scrunch up those pillows just so.

This is quite real. This man is being 'knighted' for his services to phone-tapping (honestly). That red reciever he was awarded is REAL! We did not badly photoshop that in. That's just amazing. 

The whole book is amazing / astounding / hilarious. We have been wanting to write this newsletter for a while but the books kept on selling before we got started. Now we have THREE. And the internet has TWO and those two are ££££ already. Pay no more than £95 at IDEA on the green button below!