Hertfordshire Secrets & Spies

Skulduggery in the Home Counties! This book is a fascinating look at the history of spying and spies in and around Hertfordshire. Rudyard Kipling called it The Great Game. Today, although it involves billions of pounds and sophisticated technology, the motives behind spying never change, they are much the same as when man first waged war. From the beginning of recorded history, codes and ciphers have been used to carry secret messages; from plots against Elizabeth I to the Enigma machine. Pamela Shields takes the reader through a thoroughly absorbing collection of stories from Chaucer and the Knights Templar to John le Carre and on to the 1980s when Anthony Blunt was revealed as a long-time Soviet agent. It's astonishing that so many spies had Hertfordshire connections. They probably still have - you just never know who you're rubbing shoulders with! Meticulously researched and accessibly presented this book will be of interest to not only the serious reader but also to anyone who is simply curious enough to dip in and out.