NOC - Non-Official Cover: British Secret Operations
“We were institutional killers in disruptive actions on the black, that is to say we made illegal entries across borders to perform dirty work then returned home mostly without the knowledge or connection to the local British embassy’s staff assigned to other covert affairs.
The main job description was called deep cover within SIS—NOC or non-official cover. I served in various SIS divisions in charge of different continents, often living like a mole. It should be known that any unprocessed SIS, CIA or NATO file has no number assigned to it, therefore officially it does not exist.”
The NOC Trilogy Timeline:
About the paperbacks and eBooks in The NOC Trilogy series
The original manuscript submitted for clearance by a British literary agent, who was unauthorised to do so, at an unknown date had more than half its content redacted and was banned. The title appeared in a top 100 banned book list that itself was later banned in 1998.
The re-edited printed book, NOC - Non-Official Cover: British Secret Operations (paperback ISBN: 978-1-7329661-0-9 / eBook ISBN: 978-1-7329661-1-6) by Nicholas Anderson, was first published worldwide by the Perseus-distributed (now Two Rivers Distribution) Enigma Books' spy-oriented imprint in July 2009. Due to the rapid onset of eBook downloads globally, the publisher and author amicably agreed to terminate their agreement with the original edition going out of print in June 2011.
The exclusive electronic download service with Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select commenced in July 2011 reflecting both the promising advancement of eBooks and the stark decline of traditional paper books, at the time, within the same industry.
That same year the title won the first ever Global eBook Award for Historical Literature Fiction. Later, the author's first book also reached number one in the Australian digital charts for the same genre.
Coming around a full circle, due to readying the release of the trilogy's second instalment, NOC Twice: More UK Non-Official Cover Operations (paperback ISBN: 978-1-7329661-2-3 / eBook ISBN: 978-1-7329661-3-0), in both eBook and paperback, a decision was made to make the first book available again in printed form from KDP's print-on-demand division, Createspace. Both in tandem were re-released and published in April 2014.
The third and final installment, NOC Three Times: Knock-On Effect (Last of the Trilogy) (paperback ISBN: 978-1-7329661-4-7 / eBook ISBN: 978-1-7329661-5-4), was published in all markets and formats in May 2016. Note: the Chilcot Inquiry, the investigation that commenced in 2009 into how the illegal Iraqi War was instigated, was released to the British public on 6 July 2016. Such government reports' only look above a certain line, while Anderson's book addresses what went on below it. At this stage the books became known as The NOC Trilogy.
The agreement with Amazon/KDP/Createspace was terminated in November 2018 and migrated to Ingram and their partners worldwide for printed books and Kobo and their global partners for eBooks.
Due to the success of the trio of titles in The NOC Trilogy, a fourth book NOC4: Addendum (paperback ISBN: 978-1-7329661-6-1 / eBook ISBN: 978-1-7329661-7-8), features stories that did not get included in the earlier publications. The title was published on 7 January 2019.
To be announced for publication in 2023 is the fifth and final version entitled NOC5: The Last Non-Official Cover (paperback ISBN: 978-1-7329661-8-5 / eBook ISBN: 978-1-7329661-9-2), mostly features intelligence-related stories that were accepted after retirement (known as overcover).
Note: All Nicholas Anderson's writings are purposefully faction (literary works that present factual contents in the form of a fictional novel) in order to circumvent legal restrictions on the most secret of former secret intelligence officers.
G. Forth - November 5, 2013
“The truth about spy craft; If you can handle it.”
compass2k - August 11, 2014