A captivating and inspiring book that offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of trailblazing women who defied the odds working in the British Secret Service, from the early 1900s to well after the Second World War. Hall’s heartfelt and compelling storytelling keeps you hooked, weaving thrilling narratives that stay with you long after you’ve finished. I absolutely loved it and devoured every page!

Though the intelligence services in Britain have been around for more than 100 years, very few opportunities have been made available to women who have wanted to serve their country. In her new history of women in the intelligence services, Dr. Claire Hubbard-Hall shines a light on the women who have made vital contributions to the British Secret Service.

Starting with Kathleen Pettigrew, who served as a personal assistant to five chiefs of MI6 during her 37-year career in the services and was the real-life model for Ian Fleming's Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond novels, and highlighting the contributions of numerous other women who served in critical roles throughout out both World Wars and the Cold War, Dr, Hubbard-Hall shines the spotlight on women whose previous contributions had remained completely secret. Through extensive research, she has been able to unearth never before told stories of women who sacrificed everything in service of the Crown. Her book highlights such women as Agnes Blake, who was the first female agent to join the services in 1909 when MI6 was founded and Winifred Spink who was the first female agent in Russia and witnessed the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.

Dr. Hubbard-Hall also shows that systemic relegation of women to mostly secretarial roles and reliance on male agents who had either social or educational connections ended up backfiring on MI6 and was partly responsible for the notorious Cambridge Five spy ring exposed during the Cold War.

The women profiled in this book are far too numerous to mention by name in this review. Suffice it to say that there are many, many women who held important positions and made vital contributions to MI6 from its founding to the Cold War. By unveiling these histories, Dr. Hubbard-Hall hopes to show that women have had and continue to have an important role to play in Britain's future. I would definietly say she has accomplished her mission with this book.

This was such a meaty, well-researched and eye-opening read! Every page is filled to the brim with stories of women that helped shape British Intelligence and, I’d argue, espionage as a whole. Not just their impressive careers, but also their personal journeys, personalities and human sides.

The stories span decades from pre-WWI to the 1950s with some glimpses of what the later decades brought some of the women mentioned. Of course, less documents are even valid for the later years, but the author did a wonderful job to still bring the read to a close in such a beautifully human way.

Seeing that the book is filled with stories and names, I feel I’ll need to revisit it again later as I admit I am new to the subject and found myself going down rabbit holes thanks to the book. I wonder how much more I would take in on the second read through.

All in all, this was such a great book that is clearly the product of much research and care. And it definitely left a lasting impact on me.

British-history, British-intelligence, cold-war-era, women-in-history, historical, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, history-and-culture, nonfiction, detailed, espionage****

Learning about this group of women was enlightening and has the research to back it up.
I requested and received a temporary uncorrected reader's proof from Kensington Publishing | Citadel via NetGalley.
Avail Feb 25, 2025 #SecretServantsoftheCrown by Claire Hubbard-Hall #NetGalley @KensingtonPublishing #Citadel @goodreads @bookbub @librarythingofficial @barnesandnoble @waterstones ***** #Review @booksamillion @bookshop_org @bookshop_org_uk #Nonfiction #Espionage #ColdWarEra #BritishIntelligence #WellDocumented

I was fascinated by this book, it had that feel that I was looking for and enjoyed learning about these women during this. Claire Hubbard-Hall was able to weave a great story and had the research to back this up. It had that element that I enjoyed about this type of book.