Through the personnel files, family records, and classified documents of Britain's intelligence services, Claire Hubbard-Hall reconstructs the careers of Kathleen Pettigrew, Vera Atkins, and many other women who shaped British intelligence operations from 1909 through the Cold War. These women managed vast networks of informants, broke enemy codes, and built the administrative systems that powered British espionage - yet their names rarely appear in official histories.

Hubbard-Hall pieces fragments from museum archives, private collections, and declassified files together to map the informal power networks women created within MI5 and MI6. Her analysis reveals how figures like Pettigrew leveraged their roles as secretaries and administrators to influence intelligence gathering and analysis, even while denied official authority. The women's writings - in diaries, letters, and unofficial memos - document their tactical innovations and their persistent battles against institutional barriers.

The book's structure mirrors its subjects' methods - patient accumulation of detail, careful cross-referencing of sources, and attention to seemingly minor administrative records that reveal larger patterns of influence. Hubbard-Hall demonstrates how women's official roles as clerks and typists masked their actual work directing operations, managing agent networks, and shaping intelligence priorities through their control of information flow.

Beyond adding missing names to the historical record, Hubbard-Hall's research exposes how gender dynamics shaped modern intelligence gathering. From its inception, the women who built British intelligence developed distinctive approaches to agent recruitment, information management, and covert operations - approaches that continued to influence the service long after the women were written out of official histories. Their story reveals not just individual accomplishments but how assumptions about gender both enabled and constrained the development of modern espionage.

This review is of an advance reader copy provided by NetGalley and Kensington Publishing. It is currently scheduled for release in the USA on February 25, 2025.

Hushed secrets, Ian Fleming's Miss Moneypenny inspiration, encoding, decoding, espionage, subterfuge, double agents, dangerous "toys", Bletchley Park, MI5/MI6, Official Secrets Act, post censorship, hidden staircases, invisible ink, exploding fruit, simulated interrogations, clothing replicas...it's all here. During World War II, female talents, ability to encourage people to spill information, unique skill sets, nerves of steel and ability to keep secrets were critical. These Special Operative Executive agents must have led fascinating and adventurous lives, though constant deception took its toll, too. So did constantly looking over their shoulders. This incredible book is built on copious private documents and research and should be on every reader's list.

After reading this book, my brain feels stretched and smarter. I learned more about powerful knowledge and its implications, 'dead letter boxes', 'Red Terror', changing history, secretarial duties which were often only a part of the job or a cover, implementation of the typewriter, keeping agents alive. Specific women, some of whom were socialites, are highlighted. Many did not expect "only" women to be capable of such classified work. 'Careless talk costs lives' was lived. These women take my breath away in their courage, energy, ability to plant explosives in gutted rats, blow up train tracks, rescue Jews, face any obstacle head on, and invent 'inestimable' filing systems without even blinking an eye. True heroines. I was a confidential secretary as a young woman and dreamed of such filing systems and top secret tasks!

Secret Servants of the Crown ought to be at the top of your reading list this year. It is gripping, thrilling, informative and impressive. I truly loved it!

This, to date, summed up the role of women in the secret service and their forgotten contribution to British Intelligence. These women, behind the typewriters, were the keepers of secrets; and many took those secrets with them to the grave.

In this tome, historically rich in detail, Hubbard-Hall uses one of these women - Kathleen Pettigrew - as an anchor with which to set out the history and role of these women. Whilst their roles varied, from secretary, typist, agent, passive to active, their contributions, as documented, were nothing short of extraordinary.

This is a must read tome - and not just for those interested in the study of women's history, but for those interested in the overall history of British Intelligence and espionage, especially in those whose roles in the early days helped shape the services into what they are today. I myself will be delving back into this book and taking a more closer look at those Hubbard-Hall has brought to the fore.

Secrets Servants of the Crown offers both the individual and collective history of women who served in Britain's intelligence service. The service of women has often been overlooked or dismissed as menial, Claire Hubbard-Hall tells us the contribution of women behind the scenes. She uses the experiences of individuals to weave an intricate, insightful depiction that instead of menial, the rolls women played are the threads that hold everything together. A good read for anyone interested in history of subterfuge and/or women.

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.