Book description
A thrilling account of treachery, loyalty and martyrdom in Elizabethan
England from an exceptional new writer.
As darkness fell on the evening of Friday, 28 October 1588, just weeks
after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, two young Englishmen landed in
secret on a Norfolk beach. They were Jesuit priests. Their aim was to
achieve by force of argument what the Armada had failed to do by force
of arms: return England to the Catholic Church.
Eighteen years later their mission had been shattered by the actions of
a small group of terrorists, the Gunpowder Plotters; they themselves had
been accused of designing 'that most horrid and hellish conspiracy'; and
the future of every Catholic they had come to save depended on the
silence of an Oxford joiner, builder of priest-holes, being tortured in
the Tower of London.
'God's Secret Agents' tells the story of Elizabeth's 'other' England, a
country at war with an unseen enemy, a country peopled - according to
popular pamphlets and Government proclamations - with potential
traitors, fifth-columnists and assassins. And it tells this story from
the perspective of that unseen 'enemy', England's Catholics, a
beleaguered, alienated minority, struggling to uphold its faith.
Ultimately, 'God's Secret Agents' is the story of men who would die for
their cause undone by men who would kill for it. 'Excellently
researched and beautifully written; impossible to put down.' A.
C.Grayling, Financial Times
'Vivid and moving…Hogge is brilliant at evoking the climate of
suspicion and fear.' Spectator
'A compelling and at times harrowing story…beautifully told…Hogge's
eloquent account of religion, desperation and extremism is unexpectedly
timely.' Waterstones Quarterly
'Hogge paints a vivid picture of the stresses of operating in secret,
under false identification, in constant fear of betrayal, and deprived
even of contact with their fellow priests.' Sunday Times Alice Hogge
was educated at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. She lives in
London. This is her first book.
