My Mother, The Spy

The daring and tragic double life of ASIO agent Mercia Masson

by Cindy Dobbin and Freda Marnie Nicholls

Published by Allen and Unwin
RRP $34.99 in paperback | ISBN 9781761067280

Improbable as it may seem, Cindy Dobbin had no idea her mother Mercia Masson was an ASIO agent until after her death in 1975. Her daughter knew her only as a journalist in an era when there were few female journalists.

Dobbin recalls how her mother always wanted to be in the thick of things, and that she knew people in very high places.

There were compensations for her daughter, including front row seats at the Beatles concert in Sydney at The Stadium and afterwards meeting the band.

But Dobbin never knew anything of her mother’s double life, being only a child when her mother had been outed at a royal commission called to investigate the extent of Soviet espionage in Australia, following the defection of Vladimir and Evdokia Petrov.

It is the remarkable story of a woman who paid a high personal price for her efforts in the interests of her country yet lacked the ability to develop a deep connection with her only child.

Cindy Dobbin’s discoveries after her mother’s death almost certainly would have brought a new and deeper understanding of the mother she thought she knew. This book proves we do not always know what is going on within our midst.