THE CUCKOOS' NEST - 500 Years of Cambridge Spies
by Christopher Catherwood
What do the dramatist and Shakespeare contemporary Christopher Marlowe, the Elizabethan courtier Sir Francis Walsingham, and Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean and John Cairncross all have in common?
The answer is that they were all at Cambridge University and all of them were spies...
This
brilliant new book is the first to unite such a fascinating group of
people, and to explore this extraordinary 500-year continuity provided
by their place of education. This direct continuity is something of
which Cambridge and its colleges are very aware, and which makes it such
a unique place in the annals of espionage, treachery and intrigue.
The
murder of Christopher Marlowe in a tavern brawl is still a mystery, a
subject upon which many books have been written, none with conclusive
results. But there is one factor upon which they all agree – that his
death was directly related to his activities as a spy. Some of those
involved, such as Robert Poley, were also Cambridge graduates, and with
the ideological war with Spain in the 16th century having strong
parallels with the similar 20th century struggle of the Cold War (not to
mention the fight against fascism in the 1930s that recruited many
Cambridge students to Marxism), the level of continuity is therefore
remarkable yet again.
The
Cuckoos’ Nest examines and illustrates the common international themes
of the times alongside the domestic political and social atmospheres
prevalent and elegantly and fascinatingly weaves them into a
spellbinding tale of treachery and treason.
Dr
Christopher Catherwood associated with Churchill
College, Cambridge, was Consultant to the Strategic Futures Team Team of
the Performance and Innovation Unit at the Cabinet Office in 2002
engaged in classified activities, and is the author of His Finest Hour
(2010, Skyhorse), Churchill’s Folly (2004, Carroll and Graf) and of A
Brief History of the Middle East (2010, Running Press) and many more.
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Wednesday, 14 August 2013
THE CUCKOOS' NEST - 500 Years of Cambridge Spies
FATALITY IN FLEET STREET
FATALITY IN FLEET STREET |
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by Christopher St John Sprigg
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Buy from Amazon:
Unheard of for decades, a thrilling new edition of this ultra-rare classic!
“It is the year 1937, and Lord
Carpenter, Governing Director of Affiliated Publications, decides,
against the wishes of the Premier and the opinion of the entire staff of
the Mercury, that it is time to declare war on Russia. So powerful is
he that only his death can frustrate this fatal policy. How this
dreadful disaster is averted by his murder and how, after many false
clues and suspects, the guilty person is finally arrested, makes this
book one of unusual interest to all mystery readers.”
So runs the original cover description
of Christopher St John Sprigg's novel and we can only add that, after a
very long wait, the reader is in for a treat - a detective novel that is
a finely-tuned and ingenious political thriller – one that could easily
have been inspired by our media landscape today. Written with great
skill and ingenuity, this is a thoroughly exciting and intricate
mystery. Set almost entirely in the newspaper’s London headquarters,
this intricate tale pulls the reader into a richly-layered mystery where
hundreds of people, even Charles Venables – the newspaper’s crime
investigator, is a suspect.
This, the third in our new series, is a
long-awaited opportunity to finally enjoy one of the rarest Golden Age
detective novels, written by a young but accomplished author shortly
before his early death in 1937, fighting Franco in the Spanish Civil
War. His developing political views colour the atmosphere of the novel
and add an undeniable depth to the story.
LONDON BOUND – A series
of classic crime novels, largely from the Golden Age of detective
fiction, faithfully transcribed, re-set and reprinted by Oleander under
the series name London Bound - owing, unsurprisingly, to their all being
set in the nation's capital. The Series Editor, Richard Reynolds, is a
CWA Dagger judge and crime specialist at the world-famous Heffers
Bookshop in Cambridge. Period-style covers for each, whilst honouring
the original, have been designed from scratch by Ayshea Carter, designer
at the Fitzwilliam Museum.
Beautifully produced in a completely re-set softback edition. A joy to read and to own.
Buy from Amazon:
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