The Literary Footprints Festival, the eighth annual running of our celebration of all things literary London starts tomorrow.

You can check this year’s full programme here, but to get us all in the mood Oonagh Gay shares a snippet from her Conrad’s The Secret Agent: Anarchism in Fitzrovia Virtual Tour the she will be running as part of the festival on the 2nd and 6th October (click on Oonagh’s name above for booking links).

Joseph Conrad’s Secret Agent is a London novel which throws a fascinating and critical light on the revolutionaries who called the capital their temporary home.

Great Britain was the only European nation which was prepared to allow political exiles to live, work and publish their opinions freely. So the Communards, who had been defeated in Paris in 1871, flocked here, together with Russian anarchists such as Kropotkin.

They were often received in polite society, much to the fury of Austrian, French and Russian rulers. Anarchists were active in Europe, often successfully assassinating heads of state, but Britain stood for liberty and would not get involved unless there were explosions in its own territory.

Conrad fictionalises a real life explosion which took place at Greenwich Observatory in February 1894 when a French anarchist called Martial Bourdin blew himself up. As a result, Inspector Melville from the Metropolitan Police raided the Autonomie Club in Windmill Street, off Tottenham Court Road, as Bourdin had a membership card in his pocket.

The club was a social hub for anarchists, and the building survives today as a friendly café, Café Metro.

Discover more on my virtual tour, Conrad’s The Secret Agent: Anarchism in Fitzrovia on Friday 2 October and Tuesday 6 October at 7 p.m.