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The existence of spies and espionage goes back far beyond the twentieth century, but it’s only in 1909, with turbulent events taking place in Germany and Russia and trouble from Europe spilling over into England that counter-espionage is being taken seriously for the very first time. The Edwardian era is also significant for deeper changes in English society, and although the relevance of it being a post-Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes era might appear to be the least important of matters, it does nonetheless highlight changes in certain attitudes that H B Lyle brings out well in The Irregular . I said that counter-espionage was being taken seriously for the first time, but that is rather getting ahead of things. The work of Captain Vernon Kells in the newly formed Secret Intelligence Bureau is initially not being taken very seriously at all. No-one else in the government departments (with the exception of a certain Winston Churchill) really believes that British interests are at all threa...