These original documents have some incredible stories to tell about spies in our midst…if you know where to look.
Here at The National Archives, we are the guardians of more than 11 million historical government and public records spanning a thousand years of British history. You’re listening to On the Record, a podcast by The National Archives that takes a closer look at the stories you think you know. Why does espionage have such a powerful hold on our collective imagination? And what do we really know about the men and women who have covertly gathered intelligence for our government and our enemies over the last century? Would you recognize a spy in your midst? They’ve infiltrated our films, television shows, and novels and given us an appetite for sensationalized retellings of true espionage tales. Spies, their targets, and the shadowy organizations behind them are everywhere in our popular culture. James Bond, George Smiley, Eve and Villanelle, Lawrence of Arabia, Ethan Hunt, Mata Hari, and the Cambridge Five…. Matt Norman (Scripted): Right now, as you listen to this podcast, a spy is gathering intelligence, reading classified information, and hiding in plain sight. But what do spies actually look like? What do they do? What motivates them to enter such a secretive profession? In this episode, we use the documents in our collection and expert insight to go beyond the popular image of spies, explore the history of intelligence in Britain, and tell the Second World War story of a courageous Muslim woman who defied all expectations in order to carry out a dangerous spy mission in Nazi-occupied territory. Right now, as you read this description, a spy is gathering intelligence, reading classified information, and hiding in plain sight. With the help of historians and record experts at The National Archives, we are going to use personnel files, secret government reports, and declassified correspondence to uncover the true stories of famous spies from King Alfred the Great to the Cambridge Five. Join us for our first three-part series: a closer look at famous spies in British history. These original documents hold incredible stories…if you know where to look. At The National Archives, we are the guardians of more than 11 million historical government and public records spanning a thousand years of British history. On the Record is a podcast by The National Archives that takes a closer look at the stories you think you know. Through an examination of case studies of individual wives of intelligence operatives, constructed on the basis of information gathered from scattered primary and secondary sources, it is possible to assemble and analyse a wide, highly differentiated range of gender relationships at the intersection of the manifest and secret worlds.History is everywhere in our popular culture. It is therefore surely appropriate to conduct an examination of the hitherto neglected social phenomenon of female agency in the “spyscape” of wartime British and German covert operations. Intelligence historians currently find themselves at a turning point, where new approaches to the writing of intelligence history have been called for that transcend the study of operations and policy, while drawing when necessary upon the methodologies of such adjacent disciplines as social history and historical geoinformatics. Few existing archival records or secondary sources appear to narrate or describe the circumstances, relationships, and activities of “spy wives” during the Second World War.
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