Peter Martland is a historian at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He began studying at Corpus Christi College in 1982, receiving an MA and PhD in history before becoming a fellow of the college after completion of his PhD in 1992. He is a specialist in the history of the music industry, and in British and American intelligence history. He was one of the researchers for the official history of Britain's domestic intelligence service, MI5, which was published in 2009 by Christopher Andrew as In defence of the realm: The authorised history of the British Security Service.