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Cold War
Émigré, Photographer, Secret Agent: An Extraordinary Life
A communist activist and Soviet agent, the Austrian-born Edith Tudor-Hart helped drive modernist photography and set in motion Britain’s most notorious spy ring.
Who was Edith Tudor-Hart? For a long time, and especially after the revelation of her crucial role in the creation of modern Britain's most notorious spy ring – the Cambridge Five – she existed more as a cipher than as a real person. I first encountered her name well...
AoH Book Club: John Kiszely on General Hastings ‘Pug’ Ismay: Soldier, Statesman, Diplomat – A New Biography
Shaping Britain’s war and the post-war world from behind the scenes and proving that power was often exercised not on the battlefield but in the committee room – John Kiszely talks through the career of ‘Pug’ Ismay with the Editor.
John – your book, General Hastings 'Pug' Ismay: Soldier, Statesman, Diplomat was published nearly two years ago. Can you give us an outline of the life of ‘Pug’ Ismay, a man you describe as ‘an unusual subject for a biography’? Who was he, and provide us with some...
Escaping the Grip of Eastern European Communism, by Peter Kasl
A first-hand memoir of escape from communist Czechoslovakia that explores fear, courage, and the lasting personal impact of life under dictatorship and the pursuit of freedom.
In an exploration of some of the most difficult times of his life, Peter Kasl details his trip as an 11-year-old with his family to flee the communist rule of Czechoslovakia. Escaping the Grip of Eastern European Communism allows a first-hand insight into the...
Churchill and De Gaulle: Artists of History
The two Allied leaders were not just makers of history but performers, selective of their actions and words during wartime and as empires fell.
De Gaulle wrote of Churchill, and might well have written of himself, that he was an ‘artist of history.’ Both men were artists in how they wrote their history, but also lived their lives as thought they were constructing a work of art. They understood that every act...
Death in Cold War Delhi
Delhi – City of Spies explores Cold War intrigue in 1950s India, where espionage, power politics and an unsolved murder collide in the capital..
The historical context of Delhi – City of Spies is crucial to my novel because it is the true story of an unsolved murder that took place in New Delhi in 1954 at the height of the Cold War. Although my book is based on a family archive and is, therefore, subjective...
Escaping Communism: Peter Kasl Interviewed
Peter Kasl reflects on his childhood escape from communist Czechoslovakia, the realities of life under surveillance, and rebuilding a new life in the United States.
Peter Kasl, your memoir begins through the eyes of your eleven-year-old self. Was it revisiting childhood memories and those perception of the events surrounding your escape from Czechoslovakia that drove the writing of this book? I remember all my experiences in that...
Escaping the Grip of Eastern European Communism
A first-hand account of an 11-year-old fleeing communist Czechoslovakia, the years that followed in the West and the price of pursuing freedom.
My memoir is a remarkable true story about how my family and I escaped communist rule in Czechoslovakia - one set against today’s conversations around freedom, communism, socialism, and legal vs. illegal immigration. The book is called Escaping the Grip of Eastern...
Books of 2025 from Aspects of History
Our authors and contributors recommend the titles they've enjoyed this year
Books of 2025 from Aspects of HistoryZeb Baker-Smith Editor of Aspects of HistorySeven Rivers by Vanessa Taylor explores how humanity and waterways have shaped one another across millennia, offering vivid historical portraits of the Nile, Danube, Ganges, Thames,...
The History behind The Bratinsky Affair
Exile and loss permeate Ireland’s history and its people’s relationship with Europe, themes to which the author anchors his debut novel.
The History behind The Bratinsky Affair "It is not the wimpled version of history that is interesting but its brutality." - Hilary Mantel The story of Countess Irina Bratinsky, née O’Rourke de Breffny, has its roots in the religious wars of 17th-century Ireland and...