New book Invisible Agents by Nadine Akkerman in the media
Nadine Akkerman released her new book Invisible Agents in July 2018. View the reviews on BBC History and Telegraph UK. Keith Simpson added it to his summer reading list recommendations.
‘Invisible Agents is a work of deep scholarship that suggests Akkerman would have made an excellent spy catcher. Novelists and film-makers will be plundering the extraordinary stories she has uncovered with forensic skill for years to come.’
'5 Stars. A triumph of scholarly rigour, original thinking and crisp prose. It is, in every sense, a cracking book.'
'It would be easy for the modern reader to conclude that women had no place in the world of early modern espionage, but Nadine Akkerman through extensive archival research demonstrates the role of women spies and agents. Her study Invisible Agents Women and Espionage in Seventeenth Century Britain (OUP) makes for a fascinating read.'
'Pioneering … a most valuable book, highlighting women’s contribution to the conspiratorial world of mid-17th-century Britain, while also offering a thought provoking exercise in gender and historical methods.'
Nadine Akkerman: ...'I “caught” the first true spymistress through serendipity. Janet Todd’s The Secret Life of Aphra Behn enthused me further, despite her warning that female spies are hard to pin down. Reading A. S. Byatt’s Possession and Henry James’ The Aspern Papers must have persuaded me that archival scholarship is thrilling, and it is unlikely that I will ever stop hunting for the unknown in boxes of old paper.'...
- Interview with Nadine in Times Higher Education