Edith Tudor Hart, born Edith Suschitzky (1908–1973), was an émigré photographer and covert agent for the Soviet Union. Originally from Vienna, she trained in photography at the Bauhaus in Dessau. In 1933 she married the English doctor Alexander Tudor-Hart and relocated with him to Great Britain to escape rising fascism. Tudor Hart viewed photography as a means of political engagement, using it to expose social inequality. In Britain, she focused on documentary work in London’s impoverished neighbourhoods and the coal-mining regions of Wales. A dedicated anti-fascist and communist, she also acted as a Soviet operative and played a role in recruiting members of the notorious Cambridge Spy Ring. Although monitored by British intelligence services for many years, she was never arrested and never admitted her activities.
In this volume, Daria Santini – also the author of a study on exiles from Nazi Europe in London – offers the first comprehensive biography of this enigmatic figure. Santini follows Tudor Hart’s journey from her upbringing in Vienna’s socialist intellectual milieu, through her Bauhaus education, to her clandestine work for Soviet intelligence in Britain. The result is a gripping and insightful account.
