‘All His Spies: The Secret World of Robert Cecil’ by Stephen Alford (Professor of Early Modern British History, University of Leeds) is about to be released and will fascinate readers of the Elizabethan period. This is the story of Robert Cecil, Elizabeth’s spymaster, which in the telling describes not only the elaborate network of spies Cecil used across Europe, but also focuses on a handful of trusted agents in significant situations. As it approaches its release, the book has drawn the attention of the press because it is the result of some significant detective work on the part of the author; Alford discovered the meaning of a hitherto neglected document which he describes as a ‘contents page’ of a list of spies in Cecil’s employ. Readers might remember Professor Alford as the author of the Edward VI book of 2014 in the Penguin Monarchs series. ’All His Spies’ is released by Penguin in July, the 007 month of the year. ISBN 9780241423479