Description
'Alford triumphs in recreating the historical moment. By immersing himself in Cecil's vast archive, he draws the reader deep into his working environment, capturing the closeness of his study and the chaos of the court this is turn-of-century England as it really was dangerous, gritty, on a knife edge.' - The Times 'A compelling portrait of a pivotal, yet often neglected, figure in Elizabethan and Jacobean politics. Alford's account of Robert Cecil and his spy network bristles with narrative energy and succinctly wise judgement.' - Peter Marshall From the acclaimed author of The Watchers, the untold story of Robert Cecil - the ultimate Tudor spy-masterRobert Cecil, statesman and spymaster, lived through an astonishingly threatening period in English history. Queen Elizabeth 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. Cecil stood at the heart of
