Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy

Join author Anne Sebba in discussing her book Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy. 

Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson (UK) in 2021, concerns the Rosenberg espionage case.  Adam Sisman of the Literary Review said “In Anne Sebba, Ethel Rosenberg has found the ideal biographer, sympathetic without being blind to her faults and with a sure understanding of the period … Her portrayal is compelling”. In the San Francisco Chronicle Carl Rollyson described the book as a "compassionate account of Ethel's character as a wife and mother" and an "engrossing narrative". In The Critic Gerald Jacobs described Sebba's reconstruction of the trial as “gripping” and went on to say “Anne Sebba has given Ethel Rosenberg a towering memorial”. In The Telegraph Jake Kerridge said "Sebba gets her readers under the skin of both Ethel and her era so effectively that this shameful saga had me alternately close to tears and boiling with rage. She is right to identify this as a uniquely despicable episode in US history." Rachel Cooke in the Observer called Ethel Rosenberg as "a powerful biography" and "gripping". In The Guardian Melissa Benn said "Sebba has dug deep beneath this famous and archetypically male story of spying, weapons and international tensions to give us an intelligent, sensitive and absorbing account of the short, tragic life of a woman made remarkable by circumstance".

Anne Sebba  was born in London. She read history at King's College London (1969–72) and, after a brief spell at the BBC World Service in Bush House, joined Reuters as a graduate trainee, working in London and Rome, from 1972 to 1978. She wrote her first book while living in New York City and now lives in London.

This event will take place in person and be streamed online. Zoom details will be shared in your ticket. 

Regular Essex branch attendees - please take note that this event will take place on a Sunday at 5pm rather than our usual date and time.