Rendezvous at the Russian Tea Rooms

Against a backdrop of opulent restaurants, blacked out streets and glamorous nightclubs during the ominous lull before the London Blitz, the fates of three flamboyant people become entwined. Central to this louche trio is Anna Wolkoff, a famous Russian fashion designer who counts the Duchess of Windsor among her clients. Wolkoff belongs to a fascist secret society, bent on helping the Nazis overthrow the British government.

Into her life strolls a young American womanizer named Tyler Kent, who works at the US Embassy. He also happens to be a Soviet agent, stealing top-secret telegrams between Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Hot on their trail comes the brilliant MI5 spyhunter and zoologist, Max Knight, a man so eccentric he would take his pet bear cub for walks through Chelsea. Soon he and his adversaries are enmeshed in a spellbinding drama that has the capacity to transform the outcome of the war . . .

Rendezvous at the Russian Tea Rooms offers a captivatingly original portrait of a sinister world of furtive meetings, surveillance and kidnappings. Drawing on fresh sources, it also provides the first full account of what has been hailed as the greatest spy story of the Second World War.