Her Majesty's Spymaster: Elizabeth I, Sir Francis Walsingham, and the Birth of Modern Espionage by Stephen Budiansky

Her Majesty's Spymaster: Elizabeth I, Sir Francis Walsingham, and the Birth of Modern Espionage by Stephen Budiansky is the biography of this British nobleman. The narrative revolves around two key intelligence events the Spanish Armada and Mary Queen of Scott's. It seems almost rushed like Budiansky is trying to get somewhere quickly but never really arrives. The book is short on analysis which seems strange because of the title. If you know about intelligence you can draw some comparisons with modern practices but it's not made explicit in the text. If anything Budiansky takes pains to point out that Walsingham was basically a one-man operation without him the system collapsed. There was no institutional memory or for that matter an institution. The book contains endnotes and a bibliography. There's a discussion of sources which provides some editorial comments for further reading.

Mildly recommended it could have been so much more.

Is available through Abebooks.