My mum WAS A SPY!

IT WAS YEARS BEFORE CINDY UNCOVERED THE TRUTH ABOUT HER MOTHER'S SECRET LIFE

- Emma Levett

When you think of spies you may think of James Bond but real-life secret agent Mercia Masson was about as far away from the gun-toting 007 as you could get.

Merica was recruited by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) after World War II. Her mission? To undermine communism in Australia.

She regularly attended high-society parties and befriended the rich and famous, creating a circle of contacts that she would ultimately betray.

Mercia was so serious and secretive about her work that even her family had no idea she led a double life.

“When my mother died in 1975 the papers rang, asking me about her,” Mercia’s daughter Cindy Dobbin tells New Idea exclusively. “One journalist said that he was writing a book about Australian spies and that he found Mercia to be one of the most interesting he had come across.