THE CUCKOOS' NEST - 500 Years of Cambridge Spies

View Full-Size Image THE CUCKOOS' NEST - 500 Years of Cambridge Spies by Christopher Catherwood Buy from Amazon: Click here. 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. Buy from Amazon: Click here.

FATALITY IN FLEET STREET

View Full-Size Image FATALITY IN FLEET STREET
	by Christopher St John Sprigg
Buy from Amazon: Amazon UK or US Store 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: Amazon UK or US Store