Out of the Shadows Podcast - Henry Hemming

Welcome to the first episode of our Out of the Shadows project podcast. Out of the Shadows is a project funded by the British Academy. The project aims at establishing a network of early career researchers with an interest in intelligence, espionage and covert action in US and UK history. More importantly, the project aims at bringing this research to secondary schools by providing resources, organising event and delivering a series of seminars, workshops, and talks in schools. if you want to hear more about the project, visit out website: outoftheshadowsproject.com or follow us on twitter: @Ootsproject. The first guest today is Henry Hemming, author of several non-fiction book including a travelogue of his adventures in the Middle East and Churchill's Iceman, the life of Geoffrey Pike. In this episode, however, we discuss Henry's latest book: "M: Maxwell Knight MI5's greatest spymaster." In the episode we discuss Knight's life , his tradecraft and career, his successes and failures, but also the British political environment of the 1920s-1940s. We also discuss the evolution of espionage and the physical and mental toll spying take on spaces. Finally, we look at what the era of Maxwell Knight can tell us about current spying and what it takes to be a good spy. Henry Hemming three suggested books are: - John Le Carre, A perfect Spy, - Ben Macintyre, Agent ZigZag, - Miranda Carter, Anthony Blunt: his lives.