Sandra Hempel and Helen Fry
Britain’s First Female Police Force

Sandra Hempel is a former Times journalist, who also writes for The *Guardian, the Mail on Sunday and other national media. Her previous books are the award-winning history The Medical Detective, and a Victorian ‘true murder mystery’, The Inheritor’s Powder, which was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. She also lectures and teaches creative writing.

Helen Fry has authored and edited over 25 books covering the social history of the Second World War, including British Intelligence and the secret war, espionage, and spies, as well as MI9 escape and evasion. She is the foremost authority on the “secret listeners” who worked at special eavesdropping sites operated by British Intelligence during WWII. Helen is the official biographer of MI6 spymaster, Colonel Thomas Joseph Kendrick. She has also extensively written about the 10,000 Germans who fought for Britain during WWII. Helen has appeared in a number of documentaries and has provided advisory services for TV and drama. She also appears regularly in media interviews and podcasts. Helen is an ambassador for the National Centre for Military Intelligence (NCMI) and serves as a trustee of both the Friends of the Intelligence Corps Museum and the Medmenham Collection. She works in London.