'well written and consistently thoughtful' Review of English Studies 'Bullard effectively embeds the secret histories in the broader political anxieties and ambitions of groups of influential men, and her attention to rhetoric is unusual and a considerable strength.' Journal of British Studies 'Bullard is right to bring such intelligent and detailed attention to a genre that was a prominent feature of a complex and dramatic political world.' English Historical Review

• Introduction; Part 1 Whig Secret History: The Core Tradition; Chapter 1 Procopius of Caesarea and the Secret History of the Court of the Emperor Justinian (1674); Chapter 2 Secret History and Whig Historiography, 1688-1702; Chapter 3 Secret History, the ‘Revolution’ of 1714 and the Case of John Dunton; Part 2 Secret History in the Eighteenth Century: Variations and Adaptations; Chapter 4 Delarivier Manley and Tory Uses of Secret History; Chapter 5 Secrecy and Secret History in the Spectator (1711-14); Chapter 6 Daniel Defoe: Harleyite Secret History and the Early Novel; Chapter 7 Eliza Haywood: Secret History, Curiosity and Disappointment; conclusion Conclusion;