By George Smiley, as told to Chat GPT As a former spy, I know all too well the toll that stress and danger can take on one's health. In my line of work, I've had to deal with everything from betrayals and infidelities to high-stakes espionage and assassination attempts. But through it all, I've managed …
Category: MI6
The Secret Hours – Cover and description revealed
More information and a US cover for The Secret Hours have arrived. Here's the latest book description via Amazon - Two years ago, a hostile Prime Minister launched the Monochrome inquiry, an auditing of the British Secret Service “to investigate historical over-reaching.” Monochrome’s mission was to ferret out any hint of misconduct by any MI5 …
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The Secret Hours – New Mick Herron book title revealed!
Just as we are seeing the release of Herron’s holiday themed short story Standing by the Wall and with season two of SLOW HORSES right around the corner, we have a glimpse of Herron’s next book - The Secret Hours. Here’s the description from Amazon - Monochrome is a busted flush - an inquiry into …
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Conspirator by Humphrey Slater – The first Cold War novel?
I’ve always been fascinated with the history of the cold war spy novel. I had previously considered Atomsk, released in 1949 and written by Carmichael Smith, the first but it appears to only be the first US Cold War novel. The UK’s Humphrey Slater wrote Conspirator and beat Atomsk by a year. Conspirator follows a …
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Letters of le Carré – News
After being teased by Nick Harkaway, one of le Carré's sons, during book events surrounding the release of Silverview we now have additional details on a book of John le Carré/David Cornwell correspondence. The book, currently titled A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré, 1945-2020, has a UK release date of November 3rd, …
New le Carré in October 2021 – Silverview
Surprising news broke this morning that a final complete novel from John le Carré would be published in October titled Silverview. According to his agent Jonny Geller, via The Guardian, le Carré had been working on the novel on and off before The Pigeon Tunnel and had recently completed it, giving permission for its publication …
Mick Herron’s Slough House – What to read next?
I’ve recently been asked a couple of times for authors I would recommend to read after folks have finished all the Slough House novels and novellas. My first suggestion would be to make sure you’ve read some of Herron’s other novels, like Down Cemetery Road, Reconstruction, Nobody Walks and even This is What Happened. If …
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Quiller – The TV show
I’ve spread the word elsewhere but passing on the word to all you Quiller fans. Although it's been rumored to have been lost forever, a Michael Jayston fan has uploaded all thirteen episodes of the Quiller TV series to YouTube! The show has been slightly shrouded in mystery as it has been seen since it …
John le Carré passes away at age 89
This is a hard one. In a year that has seen many, many losses, for lovers of literature, the loss of David Cornwell aka John le Carré is a difficult one to handle. Jonny Geller, his agent and friend, posted this note as well as a note from le Carré's family. https://twitter.com/JonnyGeller/status/1338239733638508547 On a personal …
The Tempus Project by Antony Johnston – Review
Antony Johnston introduced us to his new spy, Brigitte Sharp, in The Exphoria Code. Sharp is an elite hacker who also has the special training that allows her to go into the field on special missions. The first book took his hero on a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. Ups: She got to …
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Collecting Agent Running in the Field by John le Carré – Signed Editions
I happened to be in London at the same time that John le Carré's latest, Agent Running in the Field, was released. The appearance of his latest book was a much more muted affair than the fanfare over A Legacy of Spies. Whereas Legacy had giant displays in every bookshop window, book release parties and …
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Night Heron by Adam Brookes – Review
Night Heron by Adam Brookes is a spy novel with China as its focus. It manages to pull off the hat trick of teaching you something new, creating realistic characters and being a thrilling adventure. The story follows the stories of three people caught up in the web of modern espionage. The first is Peanut, …
Sarrett Circus Commencement Address
I'm always on the hunt for new bits of history or trivia about the Circus. I've made a new find and I think you'll find it to be quite the treat. I was digging through some archives at the library and found one of Control's commencement addresses to the graduates of the Sarrett training camp. …
Secret Agent Selection: WW2 / Churchill’s Secret Agents: The New Recruits – Spy Reality Review
Is this the best spy reality show? Yes.
Reconstruction – Mick Herron
In anticipation of Mick Herron’s US release of London Rules, the fifth book in his Slough House series, I did a re-read of his Slough House related work. Reconstruction came out in 2008 and is in many ways the proto-Slough House novel. Read more I've written on Herron and other Slough House books here. For as …
The Spy Who – Rarities – Part 4.5
It's been over two years but I've laid hands on yet another abridged version of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. We've seen two previous abridged versions, one in a magazine called True and the next in Reader's Digest. Over three issues of Show - The Magazine of the Arts, October through December …
The Spy Who – The Art – Part 4
It's been over two years but I've laid hands on yet another abridged version of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. We've seen two previous abridged versions, one in a magazine called True and the next in Reader's Digest. My latest find ran in a magazine called Show - The Magazine …
Reading Recommendations for Spies – Charlie Muffin
Ian Fleming didn't leave to the reader's imagination what James Bond liked to read. Aswritten by Edward Biddulph on the excellent James Bond site -Artistic License Renewed - we can see some of the books Bond perused while off duty. We're not as lucky with other famous fictional spies. That's the idea behind this occasional …
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The Exphoria Code by Antony Johnston
Antony Johnston is best known for his varied work in the comics field. Over the course of his career he’s taken on just about every genre imaginable. With the recent successful adaptation of his and artist Sam Hart's graphic novel The Coldest City (as the movie Atomic Blonde) he’s become known more as a spy …
Bond in Motion – Exhibit Review
This is another in my posts on spy tourism. Read other posts in the series here. Located in London, I had marginal expectations for the London Film Museum’s Bond in Motion exhibit. I'm not any sort of huge car guy and as this is an exhibit looking at Bond vehicles, how much am I really …
The International Spy Museum – A Review
This past summer I was able to take a road trip to Washington D.C. and while there visited the International Spy Museum. Open since 2002, it's one of the few museums dedicated to espionage. It's set to move to a new, bigger location in early 2018 so this is a last look at the museum's …
Spy Tours of London
If you are a spy fan and you are in London, odds are you will want to take a spy tour. I was able to take advantage of many of the ones I found during my recent trip there and wanted to offer a list of the various options. I didn't take a bad one, …
A fictional spy walk in London
Following up on my previous post about locations in London made famous by John le Carré as haunts of George Smiley, I'm posting some other spots where fictional spies hung out. You can find all of these and more on my fictional spies Google map. Update: Author Mick Herron has confirmed via email that this …