The journalist and podcaster chooses his top spy novels by spies. He will be speaking at the Chalke History Festival on 27 June about his new book, "The Spy in the Archive: How One Man Tried to Kill the KGB".
Our Man in Havana
Greene spent some time in MI6 and returned to espionage themes many times; to my mind, this comedy is the best of those books. On one level the story has elements of absurdity, with a vacuum-cleaner salesman feeding dodgy intelligence back to credulous spies in London, yet it also tells you something still relevant about how and why bad intelligence can start flying around.
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A Spy Alone
Charles Beaumont, 2023
A recent first novel by a former MI6 operative, this has a terrific plot involving an Oxford spy ring, but also gives real insight into the modern way in which Russia runs its spies, and how it's possible to track them down, including by using investigative skills.
Available on The Week Bookshop
Damascus Station
David McCloskey, 2021
I'm biased since he is my podcast co-host, but this is a modern-day classic set in Syria. It has the authenticity that can only come from the author having worked in the CIA and served in the Middle East, combined with all the drama you want from a top-notch thriller.
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How to Betray Your Country
James Wolff, 2021
This is the middle book in an excellent trilogy, which starts with "Beside the Syrian Sea", featuring main character August Drummond. It's by a former British government "official" (writing, like others, under a pseudonym), and has complexity and depth as it asks questions about loyalty.
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A Perfect Spy
John le Carré, 1986
Impossible not to put the old master on the list. This semi-autobiographical account gives the best insight into his own experiences as a young man, and also addresses the question that many spies ruminate on: what leads someone to betray their country?
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