Traitors

One man's traitor may be another man's hero . . .A history of well-known and more obscure traitors that exposes some of the biggest backstabbing, treachery and deceit across the annals of time.'If I had to choose between betraying my friend and betraying my country, I hope I should have the courage to betray my country.' So wrote the English novelist E.M. Forster in 1951. People have betrayed their country, or their friends, for all kinds of different reasons - and often a traitor to one person is a friend to another, especially as those found guilty of treason have historically faced only one penalty: death. Betrayal for money is perhaps the most despicable level of treachery - not for nothing is the term 'Judas' applied with such contempt; others have earned the mark of treason for rebelling against established authority. The stories in Traitors range from a British seaman in the Second World War who sold information to the Nazis for a pittance, to the White Rose gang's defiant campaign against Hitler; from the recusant terrorism of Guy Fawkes, to the abolitionist fury of John Brown; from the unwitting treason of Lady Jane Grey, to the deadly perfidy of Mata Hari. Thoroughly researched and grippingly told, these tales of treachery embrace cowardice and cupidity, high tension and terrible tragedy.

Ian Crofton was formerly editor-in-chief of The Guinness Encyclopaedia, and has written a wide range of other general reference books, including Science without the Boring Bits, Brewer's Britain and Ireland and Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable (both with John Ayto), and the Quercus bestseller World History: 50 Episodes You Really Need to Know. A polymath, with a gift for condensing complex narratives into highly readable and entertaining texts, he is the perfect guide to an increasingly popular approach to history.