Stories from the collection

The book Spycatcher sparked one of the most controversial courtroom battles of the 1980s, bringing questions around state secrecy to a global audience.

This report provides an eyewitness account of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the end of the Second World War.

This volume offers a glimpse of the numerous ‘Black Loyalists’ who seized the American Revolutionary War as a chance to gain freedom from enslavement.

This MI5 assessment highlights some of German leader Adolf Hitler’s feelings towards the United Kingdom in 1938 – including (allegedly) using a swear word.

These intricate 1716 drawings were submitted by Sybilla Masters in the final stage of securing a patent for machinery for 'cleaning and curing Indian corn'.

The government tried to keep the details of the Bethnal Green Tube shelter disaster of 1943 private – but a court case brought the terrible story to light.

Records from the 1930s describe attempts to police sexual activities between men in public toilets – and officers’ thoughts on when to enforce the rules.

Sophia Duleep Singh (1876–1948) was an Indian princess and a formidable figure in the women's suffrage movement.

Pre-trial statements from this 1776 dispute between the Chevalier d’Eon and Charles de Morande provide intricate details about these two French spies.

Security Service files paint a vivid picture of what happened when Anthony Blunt – then employed in the royal household – admitted spying for the Soviet Union.

Records in our collection show how same-sex personal adverts published in the 1960s become part of a high-profile legal battle.

When can a lemon have fatal consequences? If it proves you are, in fact, a wartime spy…