Why am I passionate about this?

Helen is an ambassador for the Museum of Military Intelligence, a trustee of the Friends of the Intelligence Corps Museum, and a trustee of the Medmenham Collection. Her latest book Spymaster: The Man Who Saved MI6 about one of the greatest spies of the 20th century, was a Daily Mail best biography for 2021. Her history of MI9—the first such history for over 40 years—was shortlisted for The Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History. 


I wrote

The Walls Have Ears: The Greatest Intelligence Operation of World War II

By Helen Fry,

Book cover of The Walls Have Ears: The Greatest Intelligence Operation of World War II

What is my book about?

During the Second World War, deception underpinned some of the major operations run by British intelligence. Deception —if successful—could to…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory

Helen Fry Why did I love this book?

This is the extraordinary true story of how, in the summer of 1943, British naval intelligence deceived the Germans into believing that an Allied invasion in Southern Europe would occur off the coast of Greece rather than Sicily and Italy. This led to the Germans diverting troops to other regions of the war and diverting vital divisions towards Greece. Operation Mincemeat, as it was codenamed, was overseen by a section of Naval Intelligence, known as Section 17M, and headed by Commander Ewen Montagu. He and his team drew up elaborate and detailed plans to float the dead body of an officer off the coast of Spain. Chained to his wrist was a briefcase of papers, including fake invasion plans for Greece. It was a work of total fiction and one of the most audacious deceptions of the war.

A corpse was acquired from St Pancras mortuary in London and prepared for the highly classified mission. It was the body of 34-year-old Glyndwr Michael, an unemployed labourer of no fixed address who had committed suicide with rat poison. He was given a new identity as ‘Major Martin of the Royal Marines’ and the leading role in Operation Mincemeat. His body was placed in a specially manufactured air-tight container and loaded onto submarine HMS Seraph. The submarine headed for Spain, and at 04:30hrs on 30 April 1943, the body was launched from HMS Seraph near Huelva and later picked up by a Spanish fisherman. The papers that Major Martin was carrying found their way to the Abwehr, the German Secret Service. Bletchley Park later picked up decrypted messages that showed that the Germans believed an invasion was imminent off the coast of Greece. Ben Macintyre's book is a page-turner.

By Ben Macintyre,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Operation Mincemeat as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A NETFLIX FILM STARRING COLIN FIRTH • The “brilliant and almost absurdly entertaining” (Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker) true story of the most successful—and certainly the strangest—deception carried out in World War II, from the acclaimed author of The Spy and the Traitor

“Pure catnip to fans of World War II thrillers and a lot of fun for everyone else.”—Joseph Kanon, The Washington Post Book World

Near the end of World War II, two British naval officers came up with a brilliant and slightly mad scheme to mislead the Nazi armies about where the…


Book cover of The Double-Cross System: The Classic Account of World War Two Spy-Masters

Helen Fry Why did I love this book?

John Masterman’s diary of events as head of the Committee which orchestrated the Double Cross Deception of the Second World is a classic read. The British ran an elaborate network of around 120 double agents whom German Intelligence believed was working for the Third Reich, but in fact were being controlled by MI5—the British Security Service responsible for security and counter-espionage within Britain. The handling of these double agents, around 120 in total, was the responsibility of the Twenty Committee (XX), otherwise known as the Double Cross Committee. It was chaired by Masterman, the fifty-year-old ex-Dean of Christ College, Oxford.

Some of the wartime double agents had originally landed in England as German spies had been captured and ‘turned’ to work for MI5. British handlers, including at least one woman, ran double agents like Garbo, Zigzag, and Tricycle. These double agents passed false information to the German Secret Service and fooled the Germans into believing that the Allied invasion of D-Day would occur at the Pas de Calais, rather than the Normandy beaches. It meant that the Germans held reinforcements and troops around Calais rather than in Normandy, which saved Allied lives during the landings on 6 June 1944 but also ensured a greater chance of success as an operation.

By J.C. Masterman,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Double-Cross System as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

J.C. Masterman was chairman of the Double-Cross Committee at the height of World War Two. This is his account of the double agents, deception and counter-espionage which were key to the victory of D-Day.

Written as an official report for MI5 in 1945, originally published with the permission of the British Government over twenty years later, The Double-Cross System details the Allied handling of enemy agents and the British infiltration of Nazi spy-rings.

Telling the stories of the agents codenamed Zigzag, Tricycle, Garbo and Snow, Masterman also tells the story of a triumphant operation in the Second World War's intelligence…


Book cover of The Secret War: Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas, 1939-1945

Helen Fry Why did I love this book?

Deception comes in many guises in the world of espionage. Hastings has colourfully charted a wealth of new information and research on the history of the secret war—the men and women working in the shadows as spies. With deception operations, he has focused on some extraordinary characters, like Ronald Seth (codename “Blunderhead”), who was a British agent parachuted into enemy territory. Seth was then apparently ‘turned’ by the Germans, but his activities became so complex that at times it was hard to understand for whom he was really working. Neither the Abwehr nor MI5 or MI6 were really sure where his allegiances were and it makes for a complex web of espionage and double-crossing. This history would not be complete without material on the notorious ‘Cambridge Five’—Burgess, Maclean, Philby, Cairncross, and Blunt. They represent, arguably, the worst betrayal and deception of the 20th century. Even Stalin was reluctant, in the end, to trust them. They warned Stalin about Hitler’s decision to invade Russia in June 1941, but Stalin did not believe it would happen. Hastings’s book is an important contribution to espionage history.

By Max Hastings,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Secret War as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'As gripping as any spy thriller, Hastings's achievement is especially impressive, for he has produced the best single volume yet written on the subject' Sunday Times

'Authoritative, exciting and notably well written' Daily Telegraph

'A serious work of rigourous and comprehensive history ... royally entertaining and readable' Mail on Sunday

In The Secret War, Max Hastings presents a worldwide cast of characters and extraordinary sagas of intelligence and Resistance to create a new perspective on the greatest conflict in history. The book links tales of high courage ashore, at sea and in the air to the work of the brilliant…


Book cover of Diversion and Deception: Dudley Clarke's a Force and Allied Operations in World War II

Helen Fry Why did I love this book?

This is perhaps an unusual choice in that it focuses on deception outside the sphere of countries usually covered by historians. Bendeck explores the numerous deceptions around D-Day, in a cluster of operations that were known as Plan Bodyguard. He explores the little-known, but vital, Plan Zeppelin which was the largest and most complex of the Bodyguard plans. Plan Zeppelin, in conjunction with A Force’s strategic deception plans in the Mediterranean, succeeded in convincing Hitler to hold back sixty German divisions from southern France and move them to the Balkans in time for D-Day. Focusing on the years 1943 to 1945, Bendeck illuminates how A Force, under the leadership of charismatic Dudley Clarke, orchestrated both strategic and tactical deception plans to create the illusion of military threats by the Allies to German defences and troops across the southern perimeter of Europe. Her book is a nuanced and important portrait of this period, and a must-read for anyone interested in deception operations of WWII.

By Whitney T. Bendeck,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Diversion and Deception as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Among the operations known as Plan Bodyguard, the deception devised to cover the Allies' Normandy landing, was the little known but critical Plan Zeppelin, the largest and most complex of the Bodyguard plans. Zeppelin, in conjunction with the Mediterranean Strategy, succeeded in pinning down sixty German divisions from southern France to the Balkans in time for D-Day. This was the work of "A" Force, Britain's only military organization tasked with carrying out both strategic and tactical deception in World War II. Whitney T. Bendeck's Diversion and Deception finds "A" Force at its finest hour, as the war shifted from North…


Book cover of Stalin's Englishman: Guy Burgess, the Cold War, and the Cambridge Spy Ring

Helen Fry Why did I love this book?

This biography of Guy Burgess has been selected because of the sheer impressive material which Lownie brings together as a result of 20 years of research. He has provided an illuminated and extensively researched biography that does not shy from laying out the full extent of Burgess’s deception and hedonistic behaviour, as well as the real risks he posed to Western intelligence services and State Secrets. The publicly educated and privileged Cambridge Five, who betrayed their country for ideological motives, arrogantly believed that they had the right to pass Western secrets to Russia. In spite of the brutality of the Stalinist regime, they believed in the communist cause and deceived everyone around them in Britain—their work colleagues, families, and friends. That deception ran dangerously into the Cold War and led finally to the defection of Burgess and his friend Donald Maclean to Moscow in 1951. Their defection caused huge ramifications through the corridors of Whitehall and the intelligence services in London. Lownie’s leading biography illuminates the full extent of Burgess’s betrayal and deception.

By Andrew Lownie,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Stalin's Englishman as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of the St Ermin's Intelligence Book of the Year Award.

'One of the great biographies of 2015.' The Times

Fully updated edition including recently released information.

A Guardian Book of the Year. The Times Best Biography of the Year. Mail on Sunday Biography of the Year. Daily Mail Biography of Year. Spectator Book of the Year. BBC History Book of the Year.

'A remarkable and definitive portrait ' Frederick Forsyth

'Andrew Lownie's biography of Guy Burgess, Stalin's Englishman ... shrewd, thorough, revelatory.' William Boyd

'In the sad and funny Stalin's Englishman, [Lownie] manages to convey the charm as well…


Explore my book 😀

The Walls Have Ears: The Greatest Intelligence Operation of World War II

By Helen Fry,

Book cover of The Walls Have Ears: The Greatest Intelligence Operation of World War II

What is my book about?

During the Second World War, deception underpinned some of the major operations run by British intelligence. Deception —if successful—could to be of paramount importance in aiding Allied offensives and the final defeat of Nazi Germany. British intelligence used some of Britain’s most creative minds to dream up schemes to deceive the enemy. The unthinkable was put into a meticulous plan and executed with such precision and attention to detail as to completely hoodwink the enemy. What makes us so fascinated by all this—is that the deception worked. Operation Mincemeat is a really good example of that. The British were able to fuse fact with fiction, cast illusion and doubts in the mind of the enemy and trick the enemy into behaving or responding in a particular way.

Book cover of Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory
Book cover of The Double-Cross System: The Classic Account of World War Two Spy-Masters
Book cover of The Secret War: Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas, 1939-1945

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No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

By Rona Simmons,

Book cover of No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

Rona Simmons Author Of No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I come by my interest in history and the years before, during, and after the Second World War honestly. For one thing, both my father and my father-in-law served as pilots in the war, my father a P-38 pilot in North Africa and my father-in-law a B-17 bomber pilot in England. Their histories connect me with a period I think we can still almost reach with our fingertips and one that has had a momentous impact on our lives today. I have taken that interest and passion to discover and write true life stories of the war—focusing on the untold and unheard stories often of the “Average Joe.”

Rona's book list on World War II featuring the average Joe

What is my book about?

October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on any other single day of the war.

The narrative of No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident while focusing its attention on ordinary individuals—clerks, radio operators, cooks, sailors, machinist mates, riflemen, and pilots and their air crews. All were men who chose to serve their country and soon found themselves in a terrifying and otherworldly place.

No Average Day reveals the vastness of the war as it reaches past the beaches in…

No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

By Rona Simmons,

What is this book about?

October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, or on June 6, 1944, when the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy, or on any other single day of the war. In its telling of the events of October 24, No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident. The book begins with Army Private First-Class Paul Miller's pre-dawn demise in the Sendai #6B Japanese prisoner of war camp. It concludes with the death…


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