Queen Elizabeth II was not officially informed for nearly a decade that Anthony Blunt was a Soviet spy, newly declassified documents reveal.

Compact spy cameras, microdots in a talcum powder tin and a briefcase abandoned by fleeing Soviet spy Guy Burgess are part of the show at Britain’s National Archives.

Philby and the Cambridge spy ring – which also included Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross, along with Burgess and Maclean – have fascinated the British public for decades.

A battered leather briefcase left behind by Guy Burgess when he fled to Moscow in 1951 is among 20 objects from MI5's archives to go on display for the first time from Saturday.

Cambridge spy ring: What they did next Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean In 1951, a major scandal erupted when the two high ranking government officials defected to the Soviet Union.

The exhibition includes the passport of double agent Guy Burgess It also shows the lemon used by German spy Karl Muller for secret writing Burgess's personalised briefcase is part of the display ...

Two of the Cambridge spies, Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess, fled to Russia in 1951. A third, Kim Philby, continued to work for foreign intelligence agency MI6 despite falling under suspicion.

A Plymouth-born spy sparked a global scandal more than 70 years ago. Guy Burgess sparked an international man-hunt when he vanished in 1951.

FILE - clockwise from top left, Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess (who died in Moscow in 1963), Donald MacLean and Kim Philby, who tipped off Burgess and MacLean in 1951 forcing them to defect and then ...

A briefcase left behind by infamous Cambridge spy Guy Burgess as he fled to Moscow in 1951 is among never-before-seen MI5 artefacts going on display at The National Archives in Kew, South-West London.

A battered leather briefcase left behind by Guy Burgess when he fled to Moscow in 1951 is among 20 objects from MI5's archives to go on display for the first time from Saturday.