Spymaster

Description

Working in the dark shadows of Elizabeth I's glory, the spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham protects his queen with plots, entrapment and torture. When Kit is forced into Walsingham's service, he is horrified at what he sees. Can he work in Walsingham's police state and live with himself? And what will happen if Walsingham ceases to protect him? Some secrets are deadly...

Deborah Chancellor is a children's writer of fiction and non-fiction. She has written extensively for a variety of publishers, and has been translated into several languages. To date, Deborah has written over seventy children's books. She enjoys the challenge of communicating complex material in a clear and inspiring way, for a new generation of readers. Deborah trained as a primary teacher before becoming a children's book editor at Dorling Kindersley. Now a full-time writer, she has spoken at book festivals, and held workshops at school literacy events. She lives near Cambridge with her husband and three children.

A short and relatively easy read, this gives an excellent insight into the court and is a good way to support study of the Tudors in KS2, bringing a fresh look to the topic. -- Sarah Brew * www.parentsintouch.co.uk * Historical novels are a marvellous way of helping children to understand history and giving them a new perspective on events and the Flashbacks series are particularly good at bringing history to life. It's an exciting and dramatic story set in a colourful and tense period. -- Sarah Brew * www.parentsintouch.co.uk * Gripping and more historically accurate than some of the Tudor fantasies currently on offer, it illustrates clearly the savagery of public life and the moral dilemmas facing one well-meaning boy in a time of religious turmoil. Chancellor's succinct descriptions bring Tudor London to life with vivid period detail to ratchet up the mood of menace. -- Cassandra Clark * Historical Novel Society *