House of Spies: St Ermin's Hotel, the London Base of British Espionage

· The History Press
Ebook
256
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

St Ermin’s Hotel has been at the centre of British intelligence since the 1930s, when it was known to MI6 as ‘The Works Canteen’. Intelligence officers such as Ian Fleming and Noel Coward were to be found in the hotel’s Caxton Bar, along with other less well-known names. Winston Churchill allegedly conceived the idea of the Special Operations Executive there over a glass (or two) of his favourite champagne in the early days of the Second World War, and the operation was started up in three gloomy rooms on the hotel’s second floor, with the traitorous Cambridge Spies among its founders. When Stalin’s Russia turned to a peacetime enemy in the Cold War that followed, Kim Philby and Guy Burgess handed over intelligence to their Russian counterparts in the dark corners of the hotel, while MI6 man George Blake operated as a Soviet double agent just across the road in Artillery Mansions. Meanwhile, St Ermin’s proximity to government offices ensured its continued use by both domestic and foreign secret agents. In this first book on St Ermin’s, Peter Matthews, a witness to the intelligence battle for supremacy between MI5, MI6 and the KGB, explores this remarkable true history that is more riveting than any spy novel.

About the author

PETER MATTHEWS is a trustee of the Foreign Press Association and works with a wide range of international journalists and intelligence specialists. He is an author on military history and international relations, including SIGINT: The Secret History of Signals Intelligence in the World Wars published by The History Press and nominated for the Intelligence Book of the Year. He served in the army during the Berlin Air Lift and was involved in intelligence activities there during the Cold War.

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.