1852. Dwarfish Charlie Boylan carries a loaded pistol into the House of Commons. A police spy for nearly 40 years, he is a can of worms waiting to be opened. Charlie wants a pension— and what he knows will get it. Was it Charlie who fingered the Cato Street Conspirators? Did he, between Waterloo and Wellington's funeral, cause the Peterloo Riot to happen? Did Shelley really drown by accident? And at the opening of the Great Exhibition, was it Charlie who saved the Queen from being blown up? With its dark revelations of the state repression that followed the Napoleonic Wars, A Very English Agent drives a horse… well, a donkey and cart, through the early years of the 19th century in a rumbustious, funny, sexy, teeming novel, worthy of the times it so vividly depicts. Julian Rathbone is the author of the hugely acclaimed The Last English King, Kings of Albion, and Joseph, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.