Tatyana “Tanya” Alexandrovna Ilovaiskaya (middle right) posing with Donald H. Nichols (middle left), Valentina “Valya” Scott (left) and Sylvester A. Huntowski (right). Note the shadow of the photographer’s head – probably Tyler Kent’s – on Valya’s skirt.  (Reproduced by kind permission of the

Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum)

Sold as part of Anna Wolkoff’s spring 1938 collection, this black-and-white crêpe dress features Mongolian-style sleeves, matching gloves and a Shantung Baku hat. (Copyright Hearst Publications)

Anna Wolkoff, photographed for her British Certificate of Identity, issued in January 1931. (Crown Copyright)

Tatyana “Tanya” Alexandrovna Ilovaiskaya (left), pictured with Donald H. Nichols (middle) and Valentina “Valya” Scott (right), c. 1939. (Reproduced by kind permission of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum)

Promoted as an “Aphrodite dress”, this classical Greek-inspired evening gown was part of Anna Wolkoff’s summer 1936 collection. Both the dress and its accompanying

scarf were made from white shirred chiffon. (Copyright: Hearst Publications)

June Huntley posing with Tyler Kent’s crashed car, March 1940. (Reproduced by kind permission of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum)

Portrait drawing of Tyler G. Kent, September 1940. 

Drawing of a white turban, available from Anna Wolkoff’s shop. The turban – worn with earrings created by the Parisian designer, Dilkusha – was fastened by a crescent-shaped, pearl-embellished clip. (Copyright: Hearst Publications)

Colonel Francisco Marigliano, Duke del Monte.(Crown Copyright)

A British Union member sells a copy of the party’s newspaper in front of Victoria Station, 1938. (Copyright: Critical Past.com)

Max Knight entertains one of his menagerie, c.1962.

MI5’s Thames House headquarters led off the huge seventh-floor foyer, depicted in this drawing, 1930.

Film still from unused footage for a March of Time newsreel, in which Anna Wolkoff carries out a dress-fitting at her shop, c.1937. (Copyright: Critical Past.com)

The front of Anna Wolkoff’s shop, located at 37 Conduit Street in the West End of London. (Copyright: Critical Past.com)

Tyler Kent’s German teacher, Mrs ‘Truda’ Ganghadaran, c.1939. (Copyright: Peter Rient)

Drawing of an outfit from Anna Wolkoff’s summer 1937 collection. The outfit comprised a white organdie blouse worn beneath a black silk suit with a pattern of white, red, green and blue stripes, composed of little flower designs. (Copyright: Hearst Publications)

Card listing the different levels of Right Club membership and the annual cost of each of them. (Crown copyright)

Advertisement for the 1935 debut novel by Max Knight’s friend and colleague, Jimmy Dickson, who wrote under the name of Grierson Dickson.

These Russian tea rooms at 31 Carnaby Street in Soho – pictured around 1929-30 – once offered an alternative to the Wolkoffs’ sinister establishment. (Copyright: Ian S.L. Fraser and the Giltsoff family)

Bill Younger striking a jokey pose in the guise of his crime-writing alter ego, William Mole, c.1957.

Still from a newsreel showing Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy arriving at the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square, August 1938. (Copyright: Critical Past.com)

Max Knight’s friend and MI5 colleague, Jimmy Dickson, posing for a publicity photo to promote Murder By Numbers, his pioneering 1957 study of serial killing.