Prisoner of war interrogation has always been an important source of intelligence. 1 In Britain, it is a topic that has often met with controversy. Wartime interrogations at MI5's Camp 020, colonial abuses during the Mau Mau uprising and Aden campaigns, the so-called 'Five Techniques' in Northern Ireland and military interrogations in Iraq and Afghanistan, have all provoked claims of ill-treatment. The growing controversy around the ethics of interrogation and allegations of torture have led to a welcome growth in the literature, moving the subject beyond the niche it once was, even if some is often prone to hyperbole. 2 Helen Fry's new account of the secretive London District Cage interrogation facility, housed in buildings off Kensington Palace Gardens, located in central London, is the latest book to shed light on the subject. As with other facilities mentioned elsewhere, the work of the 'Cage' (or LDC) has long been the subject of controversy. As home to Britain's Prisoner of War Interrogation Service (PWIS), the Cage played an important role in extracting intelligence from Axis prisoners, yet developed the formidable reputation of being 'Hell in Britain' 3 , a place where German prisoners were 'tortured to death' 4 , undermining Britain's 'love of fair play and respect for the rule of law'. 5 The Cage also played an important role in obtaining evidence for war crimes investigators at the end of the Second World War. From October 1945 to September 1948, a total of 3,573 prisoners were interrogated, providing 1,000 statements, with claims of prisoner abuse continuing into the courtroom. 6 The facility was commanded by the mysterious, German-speaking Lt. Col. Alexander Paterson Scotland who, in 1954, had tried to write an account of his experiences, provoking the full wrath of Whitehall. Scotland was eventually allowed to write only part of the story, with the full manuscript locked safely away in War Office archives and released to The National Archives (TNA) long after the story had died down. Fry's book sheds important light on this controversial facility, Scotland and the prisoners and interrogators who went through the Cage. Fry's account is the first book-length study of the LDC beyond Scotland's heavily censored memoir, filling an important gap in the writings on Second World War intelligence. Tales of spies, special operations and the codebreakers of Bletchley Park have often dominated the literature, yet Fry's book is a welcome reminder that prisoner interrogation was another important, if often overlooked, source for the Allies. As such, the book augments the important work of others such as Sonke Neitzel and Harald Welzer-as well as Fry's own workon the secret recording of German prisoners by British intelligence. 7 As with other interrogation facilities, the Cage gave the Allies a glimpse into Germany's war machine.