I’m
very pleased to announce that I’ve just signed a new book contract with Pen and Sword for their new Social History imprint!
‘Regency
Spies: England's Rebels and Revolutionaries Exposed’ will explore the shadowy
world of the network of government spies and agents provocateurs which kept watch on Britain’s underprivileged
masses during the Napoleonic wars. The
upper classes feared a replay of the French Revolution on British soil: the
threat of an armed insurrection or a French invasion was taken very
seriously. Any hint of sedition was
ruthlessly suppressed.
The
‘Great War’ against Napoleon had a devastating effect on the British
economy. Taxation reached record levels
to pay for the war, and the poorer classes endured great hardship. Hunger fuelled riots for cheaper food and
Luddite attacks on mill-owners, factories and machinery.
The
spy network had some famous successes, like the discoveries of the Despard
plot, the Pentrich Rising and the Cato St conspiracy. Sometimes the government’s efforts descended
into high farce, like the ‘Spy Nozy’ affair, in which poets Wordsworth and
Coleridge were shadowed by a special agent.
But the stakes were incredibly high: agitators risked the horrors of a
traitor’s death if found guilty.
The
book will tell the stories of the real conspirators against the government, and
the tragedies which befell ordinary folk entrapped by agents provocateurs. The
provisional launch date for ‘Regency Spies’ is mid-to-late 2015.
Images
from the Library of Congress British Cartoons collection:
Satire
identifying reform with revolution by Cruikshank, 1819. ‘True reform of Parliament: patriots lighting a revolutionarybonfire in new Palace Yard by Gillray, 1809. Sir Francis Burdett is making a speech and waving a bonnet rouge [cap of liberty] shaped like a fool's cap as Horne Tooke lights on fire a pile of acts and charters, as well as a Bible, with a flaming baton labeled "Sedition" while three creatures add to the flames. James Boswell, Samuel Whitbread, Lord Folkestone, and Henry Clifford add documents to the pile as a mob destroys Parliament in the background.
