Stephen Alford – All His Spies: The Secret World of Robert Cecil

Robert Cecil, statesman and spymaster, lived through an astonishingly threatening period in English history. Queen Elizabeth, I had no clear successor and enemies both external and internal threatened to destroy England as a Protestant state, most spectacularly with the Spanish Armada and the Gunpowder Plot.

Many readers are familiar with the great events of this tumultuous time, but All His Spies shows how easily these dramas could have turned out very differently. Cecil’s sureness of purpose, his espionage network and good luck all conspired to keep England uninvaded and to create a new ‘British’ monarchy which has endured to the present day. 

In conversation with Harry Pearson

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