Afternoon Tea with Claire Hubbard-Hall: Her Secret Service: The Forgotten Women of British Intelligence - Part of Summer Derby Book Festival

Description

Claire will be in conversation with Dr Ruth Larsen, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Derby

This event will be filmed and made available as a digital recording after the Festival. Available for purchase here.

Since the inception of the Secret Service Bureau back in 1909, women have worked at the very heart of British secret intelligence - yet their contributions have been all but written out of history.

From encoding orders and decrypting enemy messages to penning propaganda and infiltrating organisations, the women of British intelligence played a pivotal role in both the First and Second World Wars. These true custodians of Britain's military secrets include Kathleen Pettigrew, personal assistant to the Chief of MI6 Stewart Menzies, who late in life declared 'I was Miss Moneypenny, but with more power', to Jane Archer, the very first female MI5 officer who raised suspicions about the Soviet spy Kim Philby long before he was officially unmasked and Winifred Spink, the first female officer ever sent to Russia in 1916.

Drawing on private and previously classified documents, Hubbard-Hall rescues these women from obscurity, bringing their gripping stories to life to provide a definitive account of women's contributions to the history of the intelligence services.

'A fascinating history of the pivotal role played by women in the British intelligence services. A hugely enjoyable read' Clare Mulley, author of Agent Zo

'Groundbreaking' Sunday Times

'Beautifully written and elegiac . . . a masterpiece' Damien Lewis, Sunday Times bestselling author