The first book to reveal the secret history of St Ermin's Hotel, the meeting point for many spies and their handlers from the Second World War to the Cold War St Ermin's Hotel has been synonymous with British espionage ever since the 1930s, when the SIS (MI6) was situated nearby at 54 Broadway. Through to the cloak and dagger days of the Cold War, St Ermin's has not only acted as a safe house for spies to meet with their handlers, but also as a clandestine recruitment centre. Bristling with intelligence officers such as Ian Fleming and Nöel Coward, the hotel was initially revealed by the notorious double agent Arthur Owens, codenamed SNOW, to be a covert base for the Secret Intelligence Service's Section D, before three gloomy private rooms on the third floor became the birthplace of Winston Churchill's SOE in the early days of the Second World War. During the late 1940s, the traitorous Cambridge spies Kim Philby and Guy Burgess would hand over intelligence to their Russian counterparts when they regularly met in the dark corners of the hotel's Caxton Bar, whilst St Ermin's proximity to government offices ensured its continued use by both domestic and foreign secret agents throughout the following decades. In this first book on the history of the hotel, historian Peter Matthews reveals the remarkable stories of the spies who met there and the secrets they were sharing. AUTHOR: Peter Matthews is Secretary of the Foreign Press Association and regularly works with a wide range of international journalists. He has written numerous articles on military history and international relations. He served in the Army in Berlin post-WW2 and developed an active interest and role in Signals Intelligence. He is currently completing a PhD in European Studies and is working with the Imperial War Museum SELLING POINTS: ? Official endorsement and backing from the hotel and use of its archives ? Promotion on the hotel's website and mailshots to their 22,000 subscribers ? Will appeal to both London history buffs and fans of espionage non-fiction ? Author is an authority in the genre 32 b/w
