Antonia Senior and Helen Fry
The Cambridge Spies and the Making of the Soviet Union

Antonia Senior is a writer, critic and journalist. She has been the historical fiction reviewer at The Times for the past 14 years. She is a former deputy Business Editor and Leader Writer at the same paper. On becoming freelance, Antonia published three novels, two of which are set during the English Civil Wars. She podcasts as co-host of The History Book Buffs, which reviews history books. Antonia’s first work of non-fiction is Stalin’s Apostles: The Cambridge Five and the Making of the Soviet Empire, which was a finalist in the Orwell Prize for Political Writing (2026). The book considers the role of the most famous spy ring in history in advancing Stalin’s strategic aims. Stalin’s Apostles was described in The Times as: ‘A history of the Cambridge spies that is as good as anything I have read…magnificent.'

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.