Phillip Deery is Emeritus Professor of History at Victoria University, Melbourne. He has written over one hundred publications in the fields of communism, espionage, the Cold War and the labour movement. Spies and Sparrows- ASIO and the Cold War is his seventh book. His previous books include Red Apple- Communism and McCarthyism in Cold War New York and The Age of McCarthyism- A Brief History With Documents, Third Edition (with Ellen Schrecker).

Sheila Fitzpatrick is the multi-award-winning author of My Father's Daughter, Mischka's War, On Stalin's Team and The Russian Revolution, among other titles. She is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books.