Stars and spies/ Christopher Andrew and Julius Green

There is always the difficulty that any historical account will be so dense and detailed that the reader cannot easily absorb it. No such difficulty here as the authors in tracing the interrelationship between the arts and espionage always keep the narrative the right side of entertaining.

They start with the first Elizabethan age. Then there was the brilliant spymaster Francis Walsingham. Christopher Marlowe was apparently a spy , So was Daniel Defoe and Beaumarchais the French playwright and creator of Figaro

Actors feature strongly obviously skilled in the art of deception

Most well known spy writers like Graham Greene, Ian Fleming and John Le Carre had intimate knowledge as they worked in the security services. Fleming glamourised espionage with James Bond , le Carre did the opposite with George Smiley and the Circus.

Surprisingly artists do not get much it amention. Peter Paul Rubens was always thought to be a spy and war artists like Paul Nash and Eric Revillious worked on camouflage

Nonetheless this is a fascinating account both of the perpetrators of espionage in the arts and spy craft itself. The latter may now have more sophisticated practices than invisible inks but the essentials of information gathering , deception of the enemy and recruitment whether by honey traps , ideology or just cash has not altered that much in the 500 plus years the book covers