Christopher Andrew, the world’s leading historian of intelligence, presents a scintillating global account of three thousand years of spying.

From the ultimate Biblical spymaster, Joshua, whose extensive spy network used a brothel in Bethlehem as their base, to the tactics of Caesar, the writings of Sun Tzu, Elizabeth I’s exasperation with her spies, and the West’s failure before 9/11 to understand the role of religious extremism in driving terrorism, this is a brilliant and entertaining account.

In conversation with best-selling author and historian Helen Fry.

Christopher Andrew is Emeritus Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Cambridge University, founder of the internationally renowned Cambridge Intelligence Seminar (addressed by former heads of Russian foreign Intelligence and Mossad as well as of Western agencies and leading researchers in the field), former Chair of the Faculty of History at Cambridge University, and former President of Corpus Christi College. He is also chair of the British Intelligence Study Group and Founding Co-Editor of Intelligence and National Security; former Visiting Professor at Harvard, Toronto and the Australian National Universities, and has been a regular presenter of BBC Radio and TV documentaries. His most recent book, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorised History of MI5, was an international bestseller. His fifteen previous books include The Mitrokhin Archive volumes 1 and 2, and a number of path-breaking studies on the use and abuse of secret intelligence in modern history.

Historian and biographer Helen Fry is the author of more than twenty books focusing on intelligence, prisoners of war, and the social history of the Second World War, including Spymaster: The Secret Life of Kendrick which was shortlisted for the St Ermin’s Hotel Intelligence Book Award.

This event will take place at JW3, to book tickets please visit the JW3 website or book by phone on 020 7433 8988.