Daniel Defoe, the writer of 'Robinson Crusoe' and 'Moll Flanders', was a spy in Scotland in the early 1700s, sending information to England, to help England end Scottish independence, and form a parliamentary union. 

The spy craft he used was possibly the first known example of deploying surveillance, espionage and propaganda to achieve political outcomes. 

• Guest: Marc Mierowsky, author of 'A spy amongst us: Daniel Defoe's Secret Service and the plot to end Scottish Independence' (Yale University Press)   

             Lecturer in English at the University of Melbourne, where he researches seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literature and intellectual history.  

• Producer: Ann Arnold