The Darkrooms of Edith Tudor-Hart

‘This is a book of crackling immediacy, full of vivid and intimate touches, immensely readable and compelling, which tells the distressing story of a feisty but vulnerable woman who introduced the first of the Cambridge spies to his Russian handlers and felt persecuted to the end of her sad days.’
Richard Davenport-Hines

‘Hugely readable. This part family memoir, part detective story, offers a rare personal portrait of Edith Tudor-Hart, the Soviet spy behind the camera.’
Claire Hubbard-Hall

‘Peter Stephan Jungk’s painstaking research casts new light on the Cambridge agents and the mise-en-scène of the 1930s Comintern. His writing is as evocative and vivid as Edith’s photography.’
Robert Verkaik

‘A fascinating, deeply personal insight into the life of Edith Tudor-Hart: aunt, photographer, and Communist spy.’
Clare Mulley

Why did you get yourself into this, Edith? Was it all worth it?

Born and raised in a liberal Jewish family in Vienna, Edith Tudor-Hart’s legacy is defined by her pioneering social photography and her pivotal role in the recruitment of Kim Philby as a Soviet agent.

Arrested for her involvement with socialist groups, Edith emigrated to England in 1933 to escape political and religious persecution. There, her photography came to reflect her socialist ideals, and her clandestine work for the Soviet Union meant she would spend the rest of her life under the suspicion and close surveillance of MI5.

The Darkrooms of Edith Tudor-Hart is the culmination of Peter Stephan Jungk’s enduring fascination with his cousin’s life. His vivid portrait reveals a woman whose life was shrouded in secrecy and whom – in his confession to MI5 a decade before Edith’s death – the Soviet spy Anthony Blunt called ‘the grandmother of us all.’

Peter Stephan Jungk is an Austrian-American novelist, non-fiction author, and documentary filmmaker. His notable works include Crossing the Hudson, The Perfect American and The Snowflake Constant. 

Nick Caistor is a British non-fiction writer and prolific literary translator.

Amanda Hopkinson is a scholar, writer, and literary translator, notably from Spanish, French, and Portuguese.