Helen Fry
A Conversation on Tom Petch’s book, “Speed, Aggression, Surprise The Untold Secret Origins of the SAS”

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.

Tom Petch served for eight years in the British Army as a tank commander, adjutant, aide de camp, and a troop commander of 22 SAS (Special Air Service). His military experience gives him a unique perspective on recently declassified archives, operation reports, accounts, and interviews of the original SAS and their commanders. He is now an award-winning film director and producer whose debut film, The Patrol (2013), won the Film of the Festival at the Raindance Film Festival. He is also the great-great-great-grandson of Samuel Shepheard, who founded Shepheard’s Hotel in Cairo where the SAS was born.