Workshop: ‘The Cultural Imaginary of the Cambridge Spies’

18 September 2026

The National Archives, Kew, London, UK

As part of the AHRC project ‘The Afterlives of the Cambridge Spies’ (2026-8), we will be holding a one-day workshop exploring the extensive cultural impacts of the Cambridge Spies. This will be an in-person event hosted by The National Archives, in Kew, London, on the day of 18th September 2026.

2026 marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the defection of the British diplomats Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean to the Soviet Union. Since 1951, the ongoing revelations about this espionage ring have reverberated throughout British culture, influencing generations of spy novels and films, generating ongoing media and biographical investigations, and prompting wider public debates about the role of trust, loyalty, class, and sexuality in the operations of the British establishment.

The aim of this workshop is to bring together people working on different facets of the cultural legacy of the Cambridge Spies, and particularly to allow space for considering the historical, political, ethical, aesthetic and psychological challenges of mediating and understanding the spies through cultural lenses.

We aim to link people working across different spheres of cultural work, and we welcome participants including:

• academics working in literary, dramatic, film, and television fields with research interests in the spies;
• biographers working on members of the spy ring or other figures implicated in the unfolding investigations;
• historians with interests in the cultural or social impacts of the spies;  and
• creative writers, dramatists, screenwriters, and gaming developers who have either depicted these spies, or been influenced by the issues and themes the Cambridge Spies have generated.

Full plans for the day will be developed in light of the interests of selected attendees. We anticipate that the workshop will be structured in thematic sessions and that each participant will be invited to give a short & informal talk on their area of interest to help steer a specific session.

As this workshop will have limited capacity, please email the project lead james.smith3@durham.ac.uk to express your interest in attending, including a short (one paragraph) description of your interest in this topic and the aspect you might want to discuss if selected, and a biographical note or CV. Please submit these expressions of interest by 21 July.

We welcome participants at different career stages. We are able to offer support towards UK travel costs for some of those accepted (please note: we will prioritise available funds towards early career researchers accepted for the event and/or those who do not have access to other travel funds).

Details of the wider project can be found here: https://kcsi.uk/the-afterlives-of-the-cambridge-spies