This talk will cover the gadgets and methods spies have used across the world and throughout history. It was inspired by the speaker’s recent visit to the Berlin Spy Museum–if you haven’t been there, it’s highly recommended. We’ll be hearing about some of the wildly creative schemes, and just plain weird devices, creative people from Britain, America, Russia, Germany and elsewhere have devised over the years. I’m sure some of the engineers and scientists amongst our membership will have a few questions!

The speaker, Melanie King, is a much-travelled speaker and author who has worked in education, research institutes and think-tanks before becoming a speaker and author, since when she has published seven books, including “Secrets in a Dead Fish: The Spying Game in the First World War” and “The Lady is a Spy: The Tangled Lives of Stan Harding & Marguerite Harrison”.  Her other talks include “How the British First Fell in Love with Tea”, “Tricks of the Trade: Spying in the First World War” and “The Forgotten Spas of Bristol Hotwells, Tunbridge Wells, Cheltenham and Brighton”. She has a degree in International Relations from Sussex University and an MPhil from the Refugee Studies Programme at Oxford University.

You can find more about Melanie at https://melaniekingbooks.com