A Woman Called Edith by Daria Santini

Daria Santini talks to Spymasters about her biography of Edith Tudor Hart, A Woman Called Edith, the Cambridge Five, Arnold Deutsch, photography, working class lives, communism and spying.

Edith Tudor Hart has long evaded biographers. A Jewish-Austrian exile in 1930s London, she was a talented professional photographer, anti-fascist activist—and Soviet secret agent.Daria Santini provides the first full biography of this elusive figure. She traces Tudor Hart’s life from her early years in the socialist intellectual circles of Vienna through her training at the Bauhaus to her work as a Soviet agent in Britain. Tudor Hart played a vital role in the Cambridge Spies network, including recruiting Kim Philby. Throughout her life, Tudor Hart was deeply committed to the ideals of communism. But despite being watched by the British Secret Service for decades, she was never caught and never confessed.In this moving account, Santini pieces together the story of Edith’s life, revealing a woman of great energy, determination, and creativity

Daria Santini is an independent scholar and writer. She was lecturer in German language and literature at the University of Oxford for fifteen years and is the author of The Exiles: Actors, Artists and Writers Who Fled the Nazis for London.

Edith Tudor Hart: In the Shadow of Tyranny (Duncan Forbes), Poverty for Sale.

Edith Tudor Hart: A Steady Eye in Turbulent Times by Brigette and Kurt Kaindl.

Paul Burke is the presenter of Spymasters. His first book SPIES ON SCREEN will be published in September. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices