Robert Hutchinson – författare

King-makers - Conspirators - Criminals - Nobles - Seducers''A riveting story, splendidly told'' DAILY TELEGRAPH''Gripping and gruesome'' BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH''Fascinating close-ups of outlandish Tudor behaviour'' DAILY MAILThe Howard family - the Dukes of Norfolk - were the wealthiest and most powerful aristocrats in Tudor England, regarding themselves as the true power behind the throne. They were certainly extraordinarily influential, with two Howard women marrying Henry VIII - Anne Boleyn and the fifteen-year-old Catherine Howard. But in the treacherous world of the Tudor court no faction could afford to rest on its laurels. The Howards consolidated their power with an awesome web of schemes and conspiracies but even they could not always hold their enemies at bay. This was a family whose history is marked by treason, beheadings and incarceration - a dynasty whose pride and ambition secured only their downfall.

England''s most famous and ruthless king...WHAT READERS ARE SAYING about YOUNG HENRY:''Perfect'' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐''Excellent'' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐''Well researched, unbiased - very good indeed!'' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐When Henry became the unexpected heir to the precarious Tudor throne he inherited both his brother''s wardrobe and his wife, the Spanish princess Katherine of Aragon. He became king in April 1509 with many personality traits inherited from his father - the love of magnificence, the rituals of kingship, the excitement of hunting and gambling and the construction of grand new palaces.After those early glory days of feasting, fun and frolic, the continuing lack of a male Tudor heir runs like a thin line of poison through Henry''s reign. After he fell in love with Anne Boleyn, he gambled everything on her providing him with a son and heir. From that day forward everything changed.Based on contemporary accounts, Young Henry provides a compelling vision of the splendours, intrigues and tragedies of the royal court, presided over by the ruthless and insecure Henry VIII. ''Explains a lot about the man who became Henry VIII...Robert Hutchinson vividly shows us the monster in the making and teaches us to feel a modicum of pity for his plight'' DAILY MAIL''Brings the future king''s personality vividly to life, with all of its brilliantly contrasting and capricious elements'' BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE''Shines a light on Henry''s youth, and details the people and the events that drove him....it is good to be reminded of the evils of absolute monarchy'' TRIBUNE

A dramatic blow-by-blow account of the defeat of the Spanish Armada by the English fleet - a tale of daring and disaster on the high seas by one of our best narrative historians.After the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558, Protestant England was beset by the hostile Catholic powers of Europe - not least Spain. In October 1585 King Philip II of Spain declared his intention to destroy Protestant England and began preparing invasion plans, leading to an intense intelligence war between the two countries, culminating in the dramatic sea battles of 1588.Robert Hutchinson''s tautly written book is the first to examine this battle for intelligence, and uses everything from contemporary eye-witness accounts to papers held by the national archives in Spain and the UK to recount the dramatic battle that raged up the English Channel. Contrary to popular theory, the Armada was not defeated by superior English forces - in fact, Elizabeth I''s parsimony meant that her ships had no munitions left by the time the Armada had fought its way up to the south coast of England. In reality it was a combination of inclement weather and bad luck that landed the killer blow on the Spanish forces, and of the 125 Spanish ships that set sail against England, only 60 limped home - the rest sunk or wrecked with barely a shot fired.

In the Allies’ post-war analyses of the Nazis’ defeat, the “weakness and incompetence” of the German intelligence services figured prominently. And how could it have been otherwise, when they worked at the whim of a regime in the grip of “ignorant maniacs”? But what if, Robert Hutchinson asks, the worldviews of the intelligence services and the “ignorant maniacs” aligned more closely than these analyses—and subsequent studies—assumed? What if the reports of the German foreign intelligence services, rather than being dismissed by ideologues who “knew better,” instead served to reinforce the National Socialist worldview? Returning to these reports, examining the information on enemy nations that was gathered, processed, and presented to leaders in the Nazi state, Hutchinson’s study reveals the consequences of the politicization of German intelligence during the war—as well as the persistence of ingrained prejudices among the intelligence services’ Cold War successors

Closer scrutiny of underutilized and unpublished reports shows how during the World War II the German intelligence services supported widely-held assumptions among the Nazi elite that Britain was politically and morally bankrupt, that the Soviet Union was tottering militarily and racially inferior, and that the United States’ vast economic potential was undermined by political, cultural, and racial degeneration. Furthermore, Hutchinson argues, these distortions continued as German intelligence veterans parlayed their supposed expertise on the Soviet Union into positions of prominence in Western intelligence in the early years of the Cold War. With its unique insights into the impact of ideology on wartime and post-war intelligence, his book raises important questions not only about how intelligence reports can influence policy decisions, but also about the subjective nature of intelligence gathering itself.

The incredible real life story of the world''s first super spy''Full of stimulating detail... vivid glimpses of the world of Elizabethan espionage'' GUARDIAN''Walsingham emerges from these pages as a hero of epic stature'' DAILY TELEGRAPHFrancis Walsingham was the first ''spymaster'' in the modern sense. His methods anticipated those of MI5 and MI6 and even those of the KGB. He maintained a network of spies across Europe, including double-agents at the highest level in Rome and Spain - the sworn enemies of Queen Elizabeth and her Protestant regime. His entrapment of Mary Queen of Scots is a classic intelligence operation that resulted in her execution. As Robert Hutchinson reveals, his cypher expert''s ability to intercept other peoples'' secret messages and his brilliant forged letters made him a fearsome champion of the young Elizabeth. Yet even this Machiavellian schemer eventually fell foul of Elizabeth as her confidence grew (and judgement faded). The rise and fall of Sir Francis Walsingham is a Tudor epic, vividly narrated by a historian with unique access to the surviving documentary evidence.

A history of weapons of mass destruction from the First World War to the Gulf War - and beyond.''Describes the world we live in, the evils we have to fight'' CONTEMPORARY REVIEW''The list is endless, the facts mind-boggling, the potential horror terrifying - a compelling page-turner'' GUN MARTWhen Tom Lehrer sang ''We''ll all go together when we go'', the world was gripped by fear of nuclear holocaust: the ultimate endgame of every Cold War powerplay. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the threat was assumed to have gone away. But Libya, Iraq, Iran and North Korea are building weapons of mass destruction. The next live Scud missile launch could signal the next Hiroshima. Robert Hutchinson investigates the history of weapons of mass destruction, from biological warfare during World War I to the atomic weapons of World War II and the Cold War. He reveals that Russia did indeed build the ''Doomsday'' nuclear missile system featured in DR STRANGELOVE, but not until the 1980s: and it is still switched on! Chemical weapons remain the ''poor man''s nuke''. And as the attack on the Tokyo subway demonstrated, weapons of mass destruction are now available to terrorist organizations as well as ''rogue'' nation states.

The rise and fall of Henry''s notorious minister - the most corrupt Chancellor in English history''Gripping... Hutchinson tells his story with infectious relish and vividly evokes the politics and personalities of this extraordinary decade'' LITERARY REVIEW''Hutchinson tells the horrible story admirably and compellingly, acknowledging Cromwell''s rare abilities, while making no excuses for his character'' OBSERVERThe son of a brewer, Cromwell rose from obscurity to become Earl of Essex, Vice-Regent and High Chamberlain of England, Keep of the Privy Seal and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He maneuvered his way to the top by intrigue, bribery and sheer force of personality in a court dominated by the malevolent King Henry.Cromwell pursued the interests of the king with single-minded energy and little subtlety. Tasked with engineering the judicial murder of Anne Boleyn when she had worn out her welcome in the royal chamber, he tortured her servants and relations, then organised a ''show trial'' of Stalinist efficiency. He orchestrated the ''greatest act of privatisation in English history'': the seizure of the monasteries. Their enormous wealth was used to cement the loyalty of the English nobility, and to enrich the crown. Cromwell made himself a fortune too, soliciting colossal bribes and binding the noble families to him with easy loans. He came home from court literally weighed down with gold.