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Tuesday 25 August 2015

Regency Spies Now Available For Pre-Order!

I'm thrilled to announce that my forthcoming book Regency Spies is now available for pre-order from Amazon UK or from the publisher, Pen & Sword. Launch date is currently scheduled for 30 November 2015. 
Here's a preview of the blurb to whet your appetite:

                                                                          Regency Spies:  
                                            Secret Histories of Britain’s Rebels and Revolutionaries 


An Age of Revolutions
Sue Wilkes uncovers the hidden histories of Regency spies and the men they hunted. Eavesdrop on the secret meetings of Britain’s underground political societies of the 1790s and early 1800s. Discover the true stories behind the riots, rebellions, and treason trials in late Georgian Britain.

Regency Spies explores the plots, intrigues and perils of those thrilling times:      

  • Wolfe Tone’s ambitious plan to free Ireland from British rule      
  • Luddites incite arson and machine-breaking in Britain’s industrial heartlands
  • The doomed Pentrich uprising of 1817 
  • The race to stop the 1820 plot to murder cabinet ministers and seize control of the capital 

Inside Cover:
Sue Wilkes reveals the shadowy world of Britain’s spies, rebels and secret societies from the late 1780s until 1820. Drawing on contemporary literature and official records, Wilkes unmasks the real conspirators and tells the tragic stories of the unwitting victims sent to the gallows.

In this ‘age of Revolutions’, when the French fought for liberty, Britain’s upper classes feared revolution was imminent. Thomas Paine’s incendiary Rights of Man called men to overthrow governments which did not safeguard their rights. Were Jacobins and Radical reformers in England and Scotland secretly plotting rebellion? Ireland, too, was a seething cauldron of unrest, its impoverished people oppressed by their Protestant masters.

Britain’s governing elite could not rely on the armed services – even Royal Navy crews mutinied over brutal conditions. To keep the nation safe, a ‘war chest’ of secret service money funded a network of spies to uncover potential rebels amongst the underprivileged masses. It had some famous successes: dashing Colonel Despard, friend of Lord Nelson, was executed for treason. Sometimes, in the deadly game of cat-and-mouse between spies and their prey, suspicion fell on the wrong men, like poets Wordsworth and Coleridge.

Even peaceful reformers risked arrest for sedition. Political meetings like Manchester’s ‘Peterloo’ were ruthlessly suppressed, and innocent blood spilt. Repression bred resentment – and a diabolical plot was born. The stakes were incredibly high: rebels suffered the horrors of a traitor’s death when found guilty. Some conspirators’ secrets died with them on the scaffold...  


James Gillray, 'End of the Irish Invasion and Destruction of the French Armada'. Courtesy Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-8768 

6 comments:

Laurel Ann (Austenprose) said...

Great news Sue! When does the book release in the US?

Sue Wilkes said...

Hi Laurel Ann,
Pen and Sword normally release books in the US three months after the UK release date, so probably the end of January 2016, but I'll check with the publisher.

Sue Wilkes said...

Dear Laurel Ann, the US launch for Regency Spies will be February 2016.
Best wishes,
Sue.

Laurel Ann (Austenprose) said...

Thank you!

Panseybeauty said...

Hi

I'm very interested in the Nottm Ludds and radicals like Gravener Henson. At the minute I'm reading Regency Spies which is great. Don't know if some stuff that i've found out is of interest or already well known.

I don't think the informer from Bulwell was Henry Sampson but Richard Sansom. I know theres a letter in the Home Department coorrespondence, about 1818, that names him by surname and I can't remember how it was spelled. Richard Sansom (the only Sansom/sampson I think? really mentioned in Bulwell parish registrs at the time)had a lot of kids and we know the informer did because it was discussed when they were thinking about sending him to the Cape Colony. He was also a market gardener at the time and i'm sure he mentions using taking his stuff to market in his reports. I think it's also mentioned by Coldham that he was no longer in the knitting trade. anyway I think it's him.

There's a Mr Dennison who's mentioned as someone from Nottingham who has revolutionary aims and alongside Gravener as being in correspondence with Burdett & Cartwright about revolutionary planning in some of the confessions after the 'Loughborough Job'. I've found a Robert Denison esq. of Arnold who was mentioned in connection with the radicals in Nottm. His son was Henry Denison, one of the lawyers who represented John Lees' family at his inquest.

Stevens the needlemaker was mentioned as a leading radical organiser a couple of years before Oliver came along. He says Gravener Henson was talking to him about how a revolution would be brought about, going into detail about it, in Stevens'shop and that he asked him about 'Old Newton of Bulwell' and his 'gold'.

Sue Wilkes said...

Hi Panseybeauty, how interesting! Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. Is it possible that Richard Sansom is a relative of Henry Sampson (who had 6 children)? Sometimes several members of one family acted as informers (this was certainly the case in Manchester/Bolton). Have you visited the Pentrich Genealogy website? https://www.spanglefish.com/pentrichrevolution/index.asp
There are lots of family trees on there.
Henry Denison, the Peterloo lawyer, was from Liverpool, I believe.
I do hope you enjoy reading my book! I think there is still a great deal to be found out about Gravenor Henson.