Episode
Master of Lies – Anthony Blunt, the Cambridge Spy Who Changed the Course of World War II
- Podcast
- Explaining History
- Published
- May 13, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2409
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- http://explaininghistory.org
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Summary
In this episode of the Explaining History Podcast, we are joined by author Piers Blofeld to discuss his new book, Master of Lies: The Untold Story of Anthony Blunt, which re‑examines the most underestimated member of the Cambridge Spy Ring. Anthony Blunt was exposed as a Soviet agent in 1979 – long after the defections of Burgess, Maclean and Philby. For decades, he has been treated as something of an afterthought, a cultured art historian who happened to pass a few secrets to the Russians during the war. But Blofeld’s research paints a very different picture – one in which Blunt was not a minor player but a master of deception whose actions had catastrophic consequences. Blunt was recruited by the NKVD in the 1930s, joined MI5 during the war, and rose to become Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures. Officially, he stopped spying in 1945. In reality, he continued operating well into the 1950s and 60s, using his flat to debrief agents and helping to investigate the very defections of his fellow spies. But his most significant work was not stealing documents – it was disinformation. Blofeld argues that the “postgraduate level” of espionage is misleading your enemy, and Blunt was a virtuoso. He ran a deception operation that mirrored the famous “Garbo” double‑agent network, feeding the Germans false information that helped ensure the success of D‑Day. Crucially, Blunt’s information arrived at German High Command via Sweden four hours before Garbo’s did – making the deception far more convincing. Yet just three months later, Blunt sabotaged Operation Market Garden, releasing detailed Allied order of battle to the Germans. The result was 16,000 Allied casualties, a failed advance into Germany, and a prolonged war that allowed Stalin to seize Eastern Europe. Blunt’s betrayal, Blo…