Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair John Bossy

Delving into a netherworld of treachery and intrigue in Elizabethan London, John Bossy attempts to solve a centuries-old mystery: who was "Fagot", the spy working within the French embassy in London to subvert Catholic attempts to overthrow Queen Elizabeth and her government? Bossy speculates on the spy's identity in this work, making a contribution to the political and intellectual history of the wars of religion in Europe and to the domestic history of Elizabethan England.

John Bossy, emeritus professor of history at the University of York, is also the author of Under the Molehill: An Elizabethan Spy Story (ISBN 0 300 0, new NB paperback, [pound]7.99*), published by Yale University Press.

"This book is a detective story told by a masterly historian." Diarmaid MacCulloch, New Statesman & Society "Read the book. It is, quite simply, brilliant." Susan Brigden, Country Life "Bossy's creative, thoroughly researched and engaging work emulates the investigative style of the best detective fiction." Deborah E. Harkness, Sixteenth Century Journal "Mr. Bossy's erudition is so great, his virtuosity in handling it so enviable, the story he tells so fascinating, and he tells it so well, with such verve and subtlety and wit... This is a marvellous book." H. R. Trevor-Roper, New York Review of Books "Bossy combines meticulous research with a lively style and guides the reader along the alleys of Elizabethan espionage to some startling conclusions." Andrew Roberts, Sunday Telegraph "A very real tour de force by a very clever historian." Simon Adams, Times Literary Supplement "Bossy opens up a startling new angle on certain secret operations of the mid-1580s... A triumph of close historical focus." Charles Nicholl, London Review of Books