THE SOE and British Culture

The crypt at Saints Cyril and Methodius, Prague - THE SOE, COVERT ACTION, AND THE BRITISH CULTURAL IMAGINARY Ash Percival-Borley visits an important site in SOE history I recently had the opportunity to visit the cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Prague. My partner is Polish, and after visiting fami...

NEW on the project blog: Ash Percival-Borley visits the crypt at Saints Cyril and Methodius, Prague, an important site in SOE history: soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk/2026/03/09/t...

Vera Atkins: a custodian of Secrets - THE SOE, COVERT ACTION, AND THE BRITISH CULTURAL IMAGINARY Ash-Percival Borley on the pioneering wartime intelligence officer and the hidden role of secretaries in the secret war A woman in a tailored burgundy skirt-suit stepped off a bus on Baker Street, Lon...

NEW on the blog - @ashpercival-borley.bsky.social on the pioneering wartime intelligence officer Vera Atkins and the hidden role of secretaries in the secret war: soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk/2026/02/25/v...

Hey! Scholars! If you're using someone's work in your class, sometimes it's nice to email them and tell them, because then they might feel good about their research instead of entirely crushed by the academic humanities' ongoing descent into the grave

spotted in Stockwell, London - plaque commemorating SOE's Violette Szabo

🎬 SSEES Film Festival!

Vol 1: "Resistance" will bring a powerful lineup of films that explore courage, resilience and the fight for change. Screenings are free and open to all.

🗓️ 25 Feb - 25 March
📍 UCL Main campus
➡️ Register for free: www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanit...

join @modernistudies.bsky.social! 3 PGR Rep roles are available, see below for a blog post from @lilyvmartin.bsky.social & yours truly about our time as reps so far.

Lawrence of Yugoslavia - THE SOE, COVERT ACTION, AND THE BRITISH CULTURAL IMAGINARY Guy Woodward on imperial echoes in accounts by SOE agents of their experiences in the Balkans Prior to parachuting into occupied Yugoslavia in May 1943, the Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent Ja...

NEW blog post - Guy Woodward on imperial echoes in accounts by SOE agents of their experiences in the Balkans: soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk/2026/01/09/l...

Much much more on this in Imagining Yugoslavia in Mid-Century British and Irish Writing, out now from Oxford University Press

NEW book by Guy Woodward: Imagining Yugoslavia in Mid-Century British and Irish Writing

features chapter on special forces memoirs including accounts by Fitzroy Maclean and Jasper Rootham of their time in occupied Yugoslavia.

Published today by OUP: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

HWJ in the Classroom From histories of the French Revolution, to policing in Early Modern England, to LGBTQ+ histories, these reflections highlight HWJ as a valuable resource across many different classrooms.

How have History Workshop Journal articles been used to teach history over the past 50 years?

From the French Revolution, to policing in early modern England, to LGBTQ+ histories, these reflections highlight the HWJ archive as a valuable resource within many different classrooms.

Doubts about women in combat don’t stand up to history A person’s gender does not matter on the battlefield, and history agrees.

theconversation.com/doubts-about...
I wrote a little something!

From the Archives of the Political Warfare Executive, June 1943. Outline of Resistance Methods to be Encouraged amongst Belgian Workers in Germany: psywarorg.substack.com/p/outline-of...

Me entering class like ...

The King’s Dinner The King’s Dinner is about what it meant to be British at the end of the eighteenth century. Drawing on a large, open dataset of two royal household kitchen ledgers, the authors study the role and inf...

👑 The King's Dinner 🍰 will be out this June.

It's our attempt at a truly digital history monograph. Our goal is to tell history. Our approach was to apply digital humanities methods to our historical questions.

I think we've done a good job, and I hope you like it.

uclpress.co.uk/book/the-kin...

Academics outside the UK: If your undergrads are considering an MA degree, tell them about these int'l scholarships that Durham University offers! As co-Director of our 1-year program in English, I'm happy to answer questions. Deadline for scholarship: 16 January. 📚✨ www.durham.ac.uk/study/schola...

“Without @chekistmonitor.bsky.social's research, the literary works of Soviet intelligence and counterintelligence officers, and the tenacious anti-Western propaganda purpose behind them, would remain a shadow outside Russia.” Kevin Riehle, Brunel University London
Learn more: bit.ly/3LALXBG
#KGB

CFP - please share! 'The Hidden Second World War:
Cultural Depictions of Irregular Warfare and Covert Action'.

Abstracts by 1 February 2026

soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk/cfp/

Hanna Szenes park (and cafe), Budapest. How many other locations or buildings are named after SOE figures?

NEW publication from Guy Woodward: Imagining Yugoslavia in Mid-Century British and Irish Writing

features chapter on special forces memoirs including accounts by Fitzroy Maclean and Jasper Rootham of their time in occupied Yugoslavia.

Coming January 2026 from OUP: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

CFP - please share! 'The Hidden Second World War:
Cultural Depictions of Irregular Warfare and Covert Action'.

Abstracts by 1 February 2026

soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk/cfp/

CFP (please share!): Our digital literary heritage is rapidly being lost, from 1990s hypertext sites to 2010s digital humanities projects. _A Field Guide to Modernisms_ seeks to spread awareness, document at-risk projects, and brainstorm solutions.

Abstracts by February 2:
www.shawnaross.com/cfp/.

Tradecraft: The Exhibition Join us at the Weston Library or online for a talk from the curators of the Weston Library’s latest exhibition, John Le Carré: Tradecraft

In person & online!

A talk about our newly opened exhibition 'John Le Carré: Tradecraft': visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/oct25/...
Co-curators Jessica Douthwaite & Federico Varese & the Bodleian's Head of Public Engagement will discuss JLC's archive & the development of this exciting exhibition

NEW on the blog: Russell Shanks's top 5 clunkiest SOE videogames: soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk/2025/10/09/5...

Book cover for 'Covert Action'

📚 Congratulations to @rorycormac.bsky.social on the publication of his new co-edited book 'Covert Action: National Approaches to Unacknowledged Intervention'

📖 Read more here🔗 tinyurl.com/3cdbynaa

ℹ️ Find out more about Rory and his research 🔗 nottingham.ac.uk/politics/people/rory.cormac

'Amateur, dangerous and bogus': SIS-SOE relations - THE SOE, COVERT ACTION, AND THE BRITISH CULTURAL IMAGINARY Guy Woodward explores social media posts by the outgoing head of SIS and considers the fractious wartime relations between the agency and SOE Posting on X in July this year Sir Richard Moore, head of ...

NEW on the blog: as MI6 chief Richard Moore retires, Guy Woodward on the troubled relations between MI6 and SOE: soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk/2025/09/30/a...

Anything missing?

Move over, Miss Marple.

Hooray, my copy finally arrived! It’s the first attempt to compare states’ approaches to what our US friends call covert action

My own personal conclusion is “covert action” is dumb and when talking about wider practice beyond US legal codes we should use “unacknowledged interference”

featuries @easports.bsky.social Battlefield V + Medal of Honor, @charlesgames.bsky.social Attentat 1942, @rebellion.com Sniper Elite: Resistance, and Pandemic Studios' The Saboteur

Top 5 SOE Videogames - THE SOE, COVERT ACTION, AND THE BRITISH CULTURAL IMAGINARY Russell Shanks chooses the best SOE-related games from the past 25 years Among the pantheon of Second World War videogames, special operations and covert action form a prominent subgenre. My research ...

NEW on the SOE and British Culture blog: Russell Shanks's Top 5 SOE Videogames: soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk/2025/09/08/t...

Join Dr David Morgan-Owen, British Academy Mid-Career Fellow, for Britain, Conflict & the Sea – a two-day conference at the National Maritime Museum (12–13 Sept), exploring how the practice, imagery, and idea of maritime conflict have shaped British history.

Find out more below ⬇️