Episode 7
Peter Tonkin talks to Paul Burke about his new historical spy thriller SHADOW OF A QUEEN, can syphilis cure the plague? Mary Queen of Scots, the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, the household brewery, Robert Poley and Hornblower.
Listen:
On Apple
Other services
About this episode:
SHADOW OF A QUEEN
Saint Bartholomew’s Day. Sunday, August 24 1572. Paris. Robert Poley, fresh from graduating from Cambridge, rescues Sir Francis Walsingham and his household from the Catholic mobs led by the Duke of Guise who are slaughtering every Protestant they can find. Poley becomes one of Walsingham’s most trusted intelligencers.
Despite his Catholic upbringing, he infiltrates one Catholic plot after another, all designed to overthrow Queen Elizabeth. The agent soon realises that the most dangerous conspiracies centre around the Duke of Guise’s Catholic cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. The plots to install Mary on the English throne become more ambitious and substantive.
Walsingham decides on a pre-emptive strike. The spymaster tasks Poley with infiltrating the enemy’s inner circle and compromising Mary, so she becomes the author of her own demise. A kingdom – and the life of a queen – hang in the balance.
PETER TONKIN: was born in 1950 in Ulster, Northern Ireland and was raised in the UK, Holland, Germany, and the Persian Gulf. The son of an RAF officer, Tonkin spent much of his youth travelling the world from one posting to another. He is also the author of the Richard Mariner thriller series.