Espionage Archives - Aspects of History

Tim Spicer on An Axe and Four Balloons

The author outlines to Greg Lewis the life and career of Brian Franks, his understated character, resilience and effectiveness in an operational environment, while considering the challenges of researching the careers of unconventional soldiers.

Tim Spicer

Tim Spicer, many congratulations on the new book. Tell us why you chose to write a biography of Brian Franks? I was asked by the Franks family to write it after they had read my book on Biffy Dunderdale, A Suspicion of Spies. I agreed provided we also got the approval...

The Cambridge Five and the Making of the Soviet Empire

A persuasive shift of focus onto the victims, one that reveals the human cost of Kim Philby’s leaking of operations behind the Iron Curtain, distinguishes a new examination of the Cambridge Five.

Antonia Senior

Consider a boy. His name is Vasilli Ivanovich Bardeish. He has a weak chin, and jug ears which stick out sideways from his head. In May 1951, he is 22 years old. Vasilli has had the great misfortune to be born in Ukraine in 1929. To two vicious totalitarian dictators...

Our Man in Hawaii

A Japanese spy in Hawaii: how his meticulous gathering of intelligence almost gave away the plans to attack Pearl Harbour.

Alan Bardos

The Japanese Imperial Navy conducted extensive intelligence gathering in Hawaii as part of its preparations for the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, using a spy attached to their consulate named Takeo Yoshikawa. Yoshikawa meticulously gathered vital intelligence on the...

Spymasters Book Prize 2025: Shortlist Announced

Six titles are shortlisted for the inaugural award.

Spymasters Book Prize 2025 We are pleased and proud to announce the shortlist for the first Spymasters Book Prize. Our judges have thoroughly enjoyed reading and debating the entries. We would recommend you all to read the shortlist - and longlist - and choose your...

The Bratinsky Affair, by Jim Loughran

The Bratinsky Affair offers a gripping blend of espionage, history, and personal legacy.

Mya Jheeta

The Bratinsky Affair is Jim Loughran’s debut novel. Set in 1976, the thrilling story unfolds through a dual perspective: one is Tom O’Brien, a closeted Irish journalist from Wicklow, seeking the story to prove his ability to his higher-ups, and Irina Bratinsky, a...

The Secretary

The author of a new espionage novel has a story to tell about its inspiration.

Deborah Lawrenson

At the height of the Cold War in 1958, my parents met in Moscow. They were both working at the British Embassy and their rollercoaster romance was complicated by KGB shadows and rarely being totally alone, even in the apartments they called home. My sister and I grew...

Chasing Shadows

The author of a new thriller describes the search for WMDs.

Will Erikson

Chasing Shadows In the summer of 2003, I was one of around 1,200 American, British, and Australian intelligence personnel sent to Baghdad to form the Iraq Survey Group (ISG). The task of this unprecedented field intelligence operation was simple: locate the Weapons of...

Fiction Book of the Month: Pirate Irwin on The Redeemed Detective

Pirate Irwin discusses the inspiration behind the latest novel in his bestselling series.

Pirate Irwin

Pirate, The Redeemed Detective is the latest of your Inspector Lafarge novels, but we’re now in 1947 and he’s been through much. How has his character changed since The Tortured Detective which starts in 1942? He has certainly been through the wringer, emotionally...

A Suspicion of Spies, by Tim Spicer

A biography of the spy Biffy Dunderdale offers an invaluable insight into the key role he played in MI6.

Alan Bardos

Wilfred ‘Biffy’ Dunderdale often features as a daring bit-part player in World War II espionage books, but now this extraordinary character takes centre stage in Tim Spicer’s insightful biography. Dunderdale was an iron fist in a velvet glove. He combined charm with...

What the Quiet American Teaches Us

On Getting Involved: What The Quiet American teaches us and how it inspired my spy novel

I.S. Berry

What the Quiet American Teaches Us “I’m not involved… It had been an article of my creed,” Thomas Fowler boasts in The Quiet American, Graham Greene’s magnificent novel of Western embroilment in 1950s Vietnam. Not involved, Fowler insists, in the Indochina conflict;...