Espionage & counter-espionage between the Soviets & the British during London's Roaring Twenties At the height of the hedonistic Jazz Age many in British society became convinced that they were under attack from the new Soviet state Still reeling from the Russian revolution of 1917 disturbed by the development of militant workers movements at home & deeply paranoid about the recent wave of Russian immigration to the UK the British government tasked the intelligence services to look for evidence of espionage Over the next decade as the political pressure mounted the spooks began to cast their net of suspicion wider to include not only suspect Russians but British aristocrats Bloomsbury artists ordinary workers & even members of parliament It was the biggest spying operation in British Intelligence's peacetime history to date undertaken with enthusiastic support from anti-Red crusaders like Winston Churchill & its ramifications were profound On the strength of the evidence uncovered Britain deported hundreds of Russians & broke off diplomatic links with Moscow for more than two years This was the first Cold War & it not only set the rules of engagement for Russia & Britain for decades to come but also sent shockwaves through the British establishment bringing down a government & ending careers Drawing on a wealth of recently declassified & previously unseen material Timothy Phillips uncovers a world of suspicion & extremism bureaucracy & betrayal set against the sparkling backdrop of cocktail-era London The Secret Twenties shines fresh light on a glamorous decade & offers a gripping account of the lives of the first Soviet spies the British Secret Services that pursued them & the double agents in their midst