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Lecture

Helen Fry and Elyse Graham
Book and Dagger: Spies of WWII

Monday 1.12.2025

How to watch

This lecture starts on 1 December at 7:00pm (UK).

Summary

Helen Fry in conversation with Prof. Elyse Graham on how American intelligence recruited librarians and academics to become spies and deliver an extraordinary amount of Intelligence from across the world during WWII. The work of these men and wormen were a hidden asset that went on to build the official archive of the CIA today.

Helen Fry

an image of Helen Fry
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.

Elyse Graham

An image of Elyse Graham
Elyse Graham is a historian and professor at Stony Brook University. She holds degrees from Princeton, Yale, and MIT, and is the author of four books, including the New York Times bestseller Book and Dagger.