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"Is this source reliable?" GORDON THOMAS is the author of thirty-eight books published world-wide, several of which have dealt with various aspects of the intelligence world. As a foreign correspondent his assignments have ranged from the Suez Crisis in 1956 to Tiananmen Square in 1989.

He has written a number of novels and screenplays and has been awarded the Critic's and Jury's prizes at the Monte Carlo Film Festival, an Edgar Allan Poe Award and three citations from the Mark Twain Society for Reporting Excellence.

His current non-fiction book, Gideon's Spies: Mossad's Secret Warriors, is to be filmed. A previous best-seller, Voyage of the Damned, received 5 Academy Award nominations.

His books have sold over 45 million copies in 36 countries. Five have been made into major motion pictures.

Having worked as a foreign correspondent, Gordon has first-hand experience of the dire consequences of unsuccessful foreign policies. Korea, Vietnam, Algeria, Cyprus, Iraq, Iran - he has covered them all. But it was Tiananmen Square which left him most bruised.

"If you see kids rolled out 14 foot long by tanks … I've seen a lot of death and horror but this was something else".

Forty-five years of reporting has given him a shelf of best-sellers - and the skills he needed to persuade the men and women of Mossad to talk to him.

Thomas was born on the floor of a house in a graveyard, in Wales. During the '30s Depression his mother was visiting his grandparents, cemetery-keepers, when she went into labour. A blizzard prevented her reaching hospital. Because his father served in the RAF, young Gordon spent his childhood abroad. But it was while Thomas was at school in England that he wrote his first book, Descent Into Danger, the true story of a British agent in Russia during World War 11.

"I wrote the whole thing in 30 exercise books. I had no idea how to find a publisher. I looked up the first one, Alan Wingate, and sent him a letter. The book was accepted. Descent Into Danger was also serialised by the Express Newspaper Group and I was given a job."

In 1956, during the Suez Crisis, Express newspapers sent Thomas, who could speak Arabic, to Egypt as a junior reporter.

"One by one all the senior correspondents, legends of the 1940s and 1950s, were expelled and there was only me. I got my first big exclusive when Nasser told me in a moment of aberration that he intended to nationalise the Suez Canal. I filed the story. Two hours later the phone rang and it was Lord Beaverbrook himself. He said 'I hope you're right because if you're not your career is over'. At three o'clock the Egyptian Foreign Office denied any plans. The stock markets tumbled. At 6 o'clock Nasser nationalised the canal."

When BBC 2 started Thomas joined as the first resident writer. " I started 'Tomorrow's World', 'Horizon' and 'Man Alive'. I became a writer, director and producer".

He made documentaries on Dr Christian Barnard, the heart surgeon, and Dr Joseph Issels, the controversial cancer specialist. But television seemed "too ephemeral, and "I'm not a person who likes big teams."

Thomas has explored some extremely dark subjects, from slavery to Hiroshima in his books and screenplays.

His father-in-law was a professional intelligence officer who worked for MI5 and ran a network in East Germany. He introduced his son-in-law to many intelligence agents including William Buckley, the CIA station chief murdered in Beirut. Thomas saw the video made of Buckley.

"The CIA told me 'Look at his eyes. He's been tortured. A doctor did that'. I thought that was one hell of a story."

During the course of his research Thomas discovered "the CIA had been the greatest pioneer of torture I'd ever come across in the West. They had enlisted a hospital attached to McGill University in Montreal and a Scots-born psychiatrist, Professor Ewan Cameron, experimented to see if it was possible to cook minds."

The book became a global bestseller, Journey Into Madness.

"After it was pubished I was getting 300 letters a year from people claiming they had been victims of various programmes run by the American government. Not only did information arrive from survivors, but my contacts in Intelligence would send me little snippets. In the course of my career, I've met a lot of people in Intelligence. Some are very spooky indeed. You wouldn't cross the room to avoid them, you just wouldn't go into the room in the first place. Those in Mossad I found particularly interesting … so devious."

In the run-up to the Gulf War, Gordon Thomas had a rare interview with Saddam Hussein.

"In our deserts the makers of deadly perfume have worked hard to provide us with the weapons to defend ourselves and destroy the Zionists should they ever attack us, or their allies should they, too, dare to attack us." Saddam told him.

It was the first hint that Iraq possesed biological weapons. The interview was published around the world.

Gordon Thomas has reported all the major Middle East wars since 1956, including witnessing the effect of biological and chemical weapons in the notorious massacre of Kurds during the Iran/Iraq War. His intelligence contacts, particularly in Israel, are second to none. They helped to pave the way for him to write Gideon's Spies.