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Under Every Leaf

How Britain Played the Greater Game from Afghanistan to Africa

William Beaver
This first study of the War Office Intelligence Division profiles the elite group of officers whose activities sustained the British Empire in its Victorian heyday. From an inconspicuous house in Queen Anne’s Gate, London, they created a global network of spies so extensive that it gave rise to the expression, ‘Anywhere a leaf moves, underneath you will find an Englishman.’
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Product information:
  • Publisher: Biteback
  • Year: 2019
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352pp
  • Illustrated: Yes
  • Dimensions: 197x128mm
  • ISBN: 9781785905025
  • Condition: New
  • Weight: 0.3kg
Product code:
513835
Product information
Full publisher description
Delving into an encyclopaedic array of little-known primary sources, William Beaver uncovers a vigorous intelligence function at the heart of Victoria's Empire. A cadre of exceptionally able and dedicated officers, they formed the War Office Intelligence Division, which gave Britain's foreign policy its backbone in the heyday of imperial acquisition.

Under Every Leaf is the first major study to examine the seminal role of intelligence gathering and analysis in `England's era'. So well did Great Britain play her hand, it seemed to all the world that, as the Farsi expression goes, `Anywhere a leaf moves, underneath you will find an Englishman.'

The historian William Beaver is also a soldier, corporate communicator, arts editor and Anglican priest.
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