If it hadn't been for Bill Macdonald's book 'The True Intrepid,' I might never have found out about the women who went down to work in secret in New York for our own spymaster Sir William Stephenson in the Second World War.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I wrote 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' at the age of 30 under intense, unshared personal stress and in extreme privacy. As an intelligence officer in the guise of a junior diplomat at the British Embassy in Bonn, I was a secret to my colleagues, and much of the time to myself.
For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.
My father read 'The New York Times,' my mother did secretarial work, we had a dog, we had a garden, I had a brother.
For something that's supposed to be secret, there is a lot of intelligence history. Every time I read one book, two more are published.
I've been working on the lost history of technical women.
I probably read Harriet the Spy about 70,000 times.
One of my books, called 'Moscow Station,' revealed that a KGB archivist had defected from Russia to the FBI. And I knew that he was safe, and revealing this would not jeopardize him. But nevertheless, the FBI started a leak investigation.
I think I would have been a hopeless spy. I love telling stories and am almost entirely unable to keep a secret.
I invented the historical spy novel.
Women in mystery fiction were largely confined to little old lady snoops - amateur sleuths - who are nurses, teachers, whatever.