Antonia Senior studied the history of the intelligence services under Professor Christopher Andrew at Cambridge University. She was also taught the history of the Russian Revolution by Professor Orlando Figes. This led to a lifelong fascination with the impact of Marxism, the relationship between the West and Russia, the Cold War and espionage. She spent thirteen years at The Times covering business and finance before she became one of the paper's leader writers. Stalin's Apostles is her first work of non-fiction.