Lord Peter Ricketts and Helen Fry
Peace Makers: Men and Women of the Foreign Office

Peter Ricketts was a British diplomat for more than forty years and rose to be the Permanent Under Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Head of the Diplomatic Service. He was also the UK’s first National Security Advisor, and Ambassador to France. He is now a member of the House of Lords, the Chairman of the Franco-British Council and Vice Chairman of the Royal United Services Institute. He is much in demand as a commentator on foreign affairs, appearing regularly on the BBC, Sky News, Times Radio and LBC. He has written for the FT, the Times and the New Statesman. His first book, Hard Choices: the making and unmaking of global Britain, was published in 2021. His new book, Peace Makers is available here.

Helen Fry has authored and edited over 25 books covering the social history of the Second World War, including British Intelligence and the secret war, espionage, and spies, as well as MI9 escape and evasion. She is the foremost authority on the “secret listeners” who worked at special eavesdropping sites operated by British Intelligence during WWII. Helen is the official biographer of MI6 spymaster, Colonel Thomas Joseph Kendrick. She has also extensively written about the 10,000 Germans who fought for Britain during WWII. Helen has appeared in a number of documentaries and has provided advisory services for TV and drama. She also appears regularly in media interviews and podcasts. Helen is an ambassador for the National Centre for Military Intelligence (NCMI) and serves as a trustee of both the Friends of the Intelligence Corps Museum and the Medmenham Collection. She works in London.