Spymaster

Flashbacks #1

by Deborah Chancellor

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...

112 pages, Paperback

First published October 9, 2014

About the author

Deborah Chancellor is a writer of fiction and non-fiction books for children. To date she has written nearly 100 books and worked with many leading publishers. Deborah is a versatile author who has written biographies for teenagers, adapted Bible stories for pre-school children, and teenage fiction for older children with reading difficulties. She is a prolific writer of children's non-fiction on a wide range of subjects.

She has been translated into many languages and is sold all over the world. Her books have been shortlisted for awards, such as the Little Rebels Award (Harriet Tubman, 2014) and Gourmand World Cookbook Awards (Being a Vegetarian, 2010).

Deborah is an Associate Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund, and was RFL Fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge University, from 2009-2012. She appears at Literary Festivals and runs writing workshops for young people.

Reviews

[Zan An · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice little book to read for children and young adults. The book spymaster has an interesting illustration that made me curious about the book and wanted to know more about it. At the front the main character, a young man called Kit is staring straight ahead. In the corner is a hawk. Kit is asked to train the hawk. But training the hawk is just a coverup for his actual work as working as spy for the spy master Sir Francis Walsingham. Right in the beginning of the story Kit's father dies, who was a falconer Walsingham. Kit is asked to become the new falconer of the estate, but this is a coverup for his actual work to work as a spy for Walsingham. The latter is in charge of uncovering a plot of the Catholics against protestant Queen Elizabeth for the imprisoned sister Mary (she is catholic). He gets help from code breaker mister Phelippes and "traitor" Gilbert Gifford. The latter is caught and forced to switch sides to the protestants or he will loose his life. In between there is a maid who he has from time to small interactions with, nothing romantic nor any banter. Richard Topcliffe is the actual person who tortures captured catholics. In the book he is always trying to evade Topcliffe, because he is a sinister person (this is a guess). In the end, just like what happened in reality back in the 1580's Queen Mary of the Scotts is convicted of treason to kill her sister Queen Elizabeth and get the throne for herself. At the very end Kit happens to overhear a conversation between two men that they try apprehend Kit. Now Kit knows it is not safe to go back to the house. In the meantime, his employer Sir Walsingham died penny less. Bess, the friendly maid gives him all the money he was hiding under cupboard, so that Kit doesn't need to go back to the house again. Him and Bess decide to go with her brother Will to America on a boat. This is the end. The whole end, ends well. There are lot of coincidents that turn out lucky for Kit. During the book, Kit is torn between how unfairly the captured catholics are captured. He is also asked to witness and report the execution of the imprisoned Queen Mary, which makes him sick to his stomach. Overall a nice little book to read for younger people.