Queen of Spies

From living in a tin-roofed shack north of Dar-es-Salaam to attaining the British Secret Intelligence Service’s most senior operational rank, Daphne Park led a highly unusual life. In the 1970s, she was appointed to Secret Intelligence Service’s most senior operational rank as one of its seven Area Controllers—an unprecedented achievement for a woman working within this most male-dominated and secretive of organizations.

In Queen of Spies, Paddy Hayes recounts the fascinating story of the evolution of the SIS from World War II to the Cold War through her eyes, providing the reader with an intimate narrative of how the modern SIS actually went about its business, and shows how Park was able to rise through the ranks of a field was comprised almost entirely of men. Queen of Spies captures all the paranoia, isolation, and deception of Cold War intelligence work, and unveils all that it may be possible to know about the life of one of Britain’s most celebrated spies—an extraordinary woman trying to navigate a secretive world.