we don't get a lot of whatot is going on inside the trumpmp kitchen. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

segundo afternoon we're happy you could be here today there will be a 10 minute question a and answer period we have c-span with us so please use a microphone if you ask the questions we can record your response with those trustees to we have many members here today? raise your hand if you get the at but and for attending today with thosein images of interment it is an important exhibit for us wepo

have never done an exhibit on this before so i hope you'll see a. so this afternoon one of the most sensational books with sex and drama and beautiful women. and then to be made into a movie and all of those elements and then nominated twice for pulitzer prize we cannot we have not heard this before to star in a angelina joey and brad pitt

what is interesting is we bring these things together that these are so universal you can smell it and tasted it please welcome howard blum. [applause] >> there is a moment when he thinks he found a storys life w where he feels he can wake up to make those characters come alive on stage so that great energizing moment this is a book i have to write

and this is how i came to write the story of a glamorous debutante who became a secret operative and whose activities and missions but the story is barely a spy story that my threat -- spots began to coalesce as i was walking among the ancient stone with cambridge university with the infamous connection with those penetration agents or the moles. and so to be in search of

another spy that i get ahead of myself and the beginningr tho i decided i wanted to writef. a women's story but none of those had a central femalene character perhaps this was the admission of was not up to the task so let was so battle scarred with a brother, ex-wife, i have paid my dues and alimony and tuition i figured i could handle a story of a beautiful and intelligent woman. back by a my books are a true story filled with drama so my

thoughts gravitated to a female spy. in that was intriguing to was a debutante they called her the blonde bomb so that it is intriguing. i that i will try to pursue this but to be more than the espionage thriller that i have to explain how she made this journey and live with of moral ambiguity of her profession is disloyal to

everybody she encounters except the spy masters. so this is why i made my way to cambridge university so across the river is a star collection that is home to the churchill archives.apers ar that was given to new the archives that was a former british spy so a one plaint

to give you this i code-named the collected all her papers but after he died so as i sat in the archive center going after box after box after box this was a treasure trove of the unpublished memoir and there was a diary she kept as a child in the handbook that her parents had published for her which at the same time was about the low woman

she would grow up to be. so reaching a number of conclusions and i could read about her romantic life she used the bedroom as the operational battlefield with a psychological detective story to live with a morality of her chosen profession would going for one relationship to another. and how she made this journey from a debutante. and i uncovered something else in the final mission

and she was in the early '50s with her second husband and she decides to go off with him and she leaves her husband behind and she keeps a secret from her husband that she is trying to come to terms with her life with the decisions that she made because of this moment she is approaching death and she has cancer is metastasizingin very quickly so she goes off with tied to understand and to use this journey so after

leaving cambridge so i stood where she stood issued a purblind it went to ireland and wintus spaying and madrid and valencia but this time this guy was not filled with bovvers he did not have to worry about what was behind the next corner. and that was the site of the operational missions with a surprise a realization rea looking into her life she

was such a disloyal spouse, a treacherous mother to both of her children and wasn't very sympathetic but i had a great deal of sympathy and respect for the woman she was for her courage to run she contributed to the allied cause what do i mean by that? so a good place to start is crossing the rubicon into the covert world and when she became a spy in pre-war poland and

was a sad great place in a disastrous marriage 20 years older than she a british diplomat with the umbrella of carrying diplomat looking to charm every man that she met. and her husband had a very severe stroke in to say go back to warsaw for grow when the ambassador to a understand i am coming backnot h and i will be returning.

so she follows her way word heart and has a polish diplomat and then tune set at night with that tiger n skin rug and then to see something they saw in thee office that day.greement so that germany moves into a justice of akia. -- check with slovakia. and then she picks up the phone to call the british the passport control officer

is a secret intelligence officer for mi. and how would you like to play a round of golf? in the middle of winter in the greens were never good. and then to say sure why not? because they could speak on the golf course without anybody over hearing or attracted attention in. in with us spymasters for what they have to stay several days later to come back that london thinks this is great get all you can invent to become a spy with

mi so with those spymasters here say spread your wings and move up higher and did not have romance is but adventures. and then to say as an aide to joseph he was a young and handsome guy. so low to approach the american ambassador i would like to sit next to the counter.

and then to dance cheek to cheek and then goes home with them. and then to apply in his arms all night. blessed as he left she wouldld step up everything he said to pass them onto her handler at the embassy. that is the gift every spy has to learn maybe not a gift just for spies but also for politicians but in the process so it was there in

the black chamber that those specialist tried to crack the enigma machine. so the encoding device developed to for the war when they want to send trade secrets the german army. takes it over with those bills in and whistles to become so complex to makee any message with those permutations but after three years they had cracked and the enigma machine.se this and then that is one of the key events. one of

and then to crack the enigma code so that british facility for codebreaking so to play a key role of the secret service and how important was it? they were descending 85,000. general eisenhower said itra sure into war for those thousands of lives but then there is another operationhly in

the years 1940 living in georgetown for that discrete entertaining their british taxpayers rented it but in this house in the headquarters of the british that is based in new yorkis basd and run by william stevenson and this telegram is from the admiral. especially at all cost they don't need to explain and to go across the mediterranean.

in then to be postponed and then to provide the made -- the missing link and then when she was young girl she knew alberto. bin to the admiral in betty is 2018 and beautiful and then to wind up in her bedroom to come by several

times a week and then thee admiral says to do an act of treason and then she doesn't know that will return end so she stays the one week later the at all returns and says with that honorable solution i cannot give you decipher but ikea and give you the name of someone in the restip is up to you. that still allow the admiral

so now she uses covered in says she is using -- for those to behind-the-scenesembase and is flattered by this and you can see that she is my a womanizer that is by the british taxpayer and say i could live like this.. and has been authorized by the british government for that economical some for the seifert is to get set at $2,500. it is photographed and returned and off the

southern tip of greece to approach the italian navyr nati with those 14-inch guns with those two ruth cruz thursday in the the battleship and those of lose their lives churchill describes the encounter in betty helped to make that possible. >> there is another incident involving betty the year is1, 1941 that is a low point for the allies pearl harbor which just bombed the british were pushed off the continent of europe germany

marches into russia and at this point russia comes to united states and tries to convince them so eventually even if they are working towards this decision the british government decides they will get into north africa. so then what those in the central area have headquarters as the independent state and they are allowed to have an embassy in the united statesembs

and betty is told to get the cipher from the embassy. it is on the second floor mitigated is a in an impossible mission so she goes about the mission looking for of friend and bruce is a french man who likes good food and then goes to interview him the next eight -- the next day calls and asks for lunch. bedro

and what never happens to her to fall in love and to be the largest in greatestof love of my life and has no problems to pass that on.nd >> bin that the trail is very repetitious.s bruc and then coming up with the plan and then to do you approach the guard to say that betty lives with herrd parents so we need some

place to go at night we would like to use the embassy. [laughter] so just like any french man does what he can to promote the love so at the same time the american spy network works with them teaching her how to crack a safe. and they give a pardon and then known as the georgia cracker. [laughter] then at the same time and then when the time is right.

so this is the anniversary? we would like you to join s and then to put in the sleeping powder into the water bowl and they go out like a light so she makes her way when she gets to the safe in the wheels are turning slowly and she gets settled bin and that cleaning staff for those code books need to be photographed and returned so all betty can do is kiss of books for when she goes to for handler.

you cannot give them sleeping powder again. but she insists on going back. but then to feel that things are not quite right she feels like the dog is acting suspicious blakey has a headache. and as a safe was open and is getting nervous so what did she do? and so to stand

there justin the pearls and then to make a half-hearted attempt in then he backs off to get the code books out to be photographed 5b0 ss. so how important are they? the allied troops land on the beaches of north africa is it is largely possible so to have our planes bombed the right installations and churchill goes before parliament it is the end of the beginning for the allies

to make that possiblepossible according to the os usnge changing the whole course of the war. so then the british decided to infiltrate them into france. to speak perfect boarding school french chiru get by and then the american citizen soto had a legend for her. so that old goat is old enough to be her father so

bruce will be her father so now to convince the wife not really an american spy. to cut her hair and die that. and then something elsee happens. in and in turn withal love the diplomats and we in turn and then to send them to the hotel hershey inlo pennsylvania. and then with a letter in the state department in to

the hotel hershey is not up to their standards.into and then she goes screaming through the hotel after she was naked bed with him yelling she is not my daughter and is thus by so that ended her operational career. but what a career.e had been but she put her sensibilities into a cause that she believed in. in then to mention to tell

all of the new recruits in the last person you say goodk night. and that is the personification but this divemasters today are more concerned of electronic elements.we want in to be more likely to be involved but then we need to get better intelligence so perhaps we need more agents. [applause]

[inaudible conversations] >> my question is the other side is so she did not really interfaith with thosete other spies and she was on her own. in thieu's that bedroom it is called the honey trap.

and that the same time to take a vintage. >> any of your questions?. >> so what you wrote about in two peas that together. and indulge of memoirs and other sources and then to s have those references in bin navy was involved with her.

so the secret history of the service of the war published two years ago makes many references one section in that old saying seems incredible to see down a the harbor york the to be exposed at the hotel hershey that was it?. >> she tried to keep on going. . .