A magazine for their eyes only

Accountants may have Accountancy Age, dentists the British Dental Journal and horticulturalists have Nurseryman and Garden Centre. Now spying, that most individual of professions, has its own magazine.

The first issue of Eye Spy! hit the newsstands this week as a must-read for James Bond and his cohorts, pledging to lift the lid on "the shadowy world of intelligence, espionage, terrorism, black projects, military matters and much more besides".

An under-performing spook under pressure from his spymasters might be interested to read about a revolutionary chemical spray which can make envelopes transparent. Another article, however, warns that a radioactive spray developed by the former East German intelligence service, the Stasi, to track surveillance targets, causes cancer. The really disgruntled spy will be happy to discover they can now sue the Government if they feel they have been badly treated or unfairly sacked.

On the other hand, those wishing to join "the second oldest profession in the world" are given a wealth of useful information on how to penetrate the walls of MI5 and MI6. They are told that MI5 has mounted a drive to recruit more black and Asian officers, while mathematicians who want to put their skills to good use breaking codes at GCHQ are given hints on how to solve the binary brainteaser on its website.

Computer boffins can read that MI5 is looking for IT experts to scale buildings in the dead of night and probe computer files.

Alongside an exclusive on GCHQ moving to a new building and CIA successes against Middle East terrorists, there is an intelligence report on how Afghan men are sporting Leonardo DiCaprio haircuts after watching black market videos of Titanic.

High impact pictures are few and far between. Most are portraits of leading spies and terrorists - with dark glasses and masks much in evidence.

Otherwise the pictures are of high-security buildings taken from a distance. The photogenic MI6 headquarters at Vauxhall Cross is pictured no fewer than six times. Perhaps appropriately there is no "classi-fied" advertising and just one display advert adorns the news pages: for a booklet on how to become a bodyguard.

Editor of Eye Spy! Mark Birdsall said: "We have acquired the services of several feature writers and consultants, many of whom are closely associated with government, the military and intelligence agencies. Eye Spy! has already been refused permission to advertise in various official publications - we're making the establishment very nervous."

Annual subscriptions to Eye Spy! cost £20 and anyone taking one up before 1 July will get a free CD containing 150 intelligence documents.