Fun fact: Sometimes he re-reads lines he’s written for veteran agent Jackson Lamb and thinks: “My God, did I write that? My mother reads this stuff!” Bona fides: With Slow Horses mesmerizing audiences on Apple TV, Mick Herron's name is often bandied about as le Carré’s successor. He was educated at Oxford and published his first novel, Down Cemetery Road, about detective Zoë Boehm. In 2010, he found his niche with Slow Horses featuring MI5 agents who have been exiled from the mainstream for various offenses. He won the Crime Writers' Association 2013 Gold Dagger award.
2. Paul Vidich
Fun Facts: Paul grew up reading boys adventure books and left his corporate career at 56 to writing full time.
Bona Fides: Paul Vidich's spy writing career isn't his only brush with espionage. His uncle was Frank Olson, a CIA bio-weapons scientist in the 1950’s who died under suspicious circumstances. In Beirut Station, set during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, Vidich's novel follows a CIA operative on a mission to assassinate a Hezbollah leader amidst the turmoil of war. Vidich's authentic storytelling and attention to detail not only offer a gripping portrayal of the blurred lines between allies and enemies but also position him as a notable figure in the spy genre, drawing comparisons to the late John le Carré.
3. David McCloskey
Fun Facts: He revealed there really is a hotdog vending machine at CIA HQ and once compared espionage to clandestine journalism.
Bona Fides: Former CIA analyst David McCloskey is the author of Damascus Station and Moscow X. Renowned for his CIA contributions, including writing for the President's Daily Brief and providing classified testimony to Congressional committees, McCloskey specialized in Middle East field stations during the Arab Spring and focused on counterterrorism in Syria and Iraq. Is it any wonder he's good at the spying game?
4. Nick Harkaway
Fun fact: Le Carré's youngest son, Nick, also a writer, is alternatively described as 'J. G. Ballard’s geeky younger brother' and 'William Makepeace Thackeray on acid'.
Bona fides: Harkaway picked up kudos for his first book, The Gone Away World, a sci-fi epic nominated for a Locus Award for Best First Novel and a BSFA Award for Best Novel. He's written four more novels in the decade since, but the spy genre is a tricky game. Harkaway plans to tackle a new George Smiley novel next, exploring the missing years between The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It's an ambitious project but Harkaway (real name Nicholas Cornwell) grew up with the evolution of the 'Circus' so it is also a deeply personal one.
5. Charlotte Philby
Fun Fact: As a young woman, she read John le Carré’s books as an exercise to understand her grandfather, Kim Philby, the notorious KGB double agent. Bona Fides: The former investigative reporter for London’s The Independent newspaper wrote three of her own critically acclaimed espionage books including The Second Woman. She’s also published a biography about the Cambridge Five’s Philby in 2022 using old letters and family photos. Her parents would take her to visit Kim in Russia on family holidays after he fled to Moscow and it eventually became apparent that he was not just a doting grandad.
The death of espionage writerJohn le Carréwas a blow to fans, but there are plenty of exceptional writers vying to become heir to le Carré’s legacy in the spy genre. SPYSCAPE checked out 10 must-read espionage writers and possible successors.
This story is part of our weekly briefing. Sign up to receive the FREE briefing to your inbox.
1. Mick Herron
Fun fact: Sometimes he re-reads lines he’s written for veteran agent Jackson Lamb and thinks: “My God, did I write that? My mother reads this stuff!” Bona fides: With Slow Horses mesmerizing audiences on Apple TV, Mick Herron's name is often bandied about as le Carré’s successor. He was educated at Oxford and published his first novel, Down Cemetery Road, about detective Zoë Boehm. In 2010, he found his niche with Slow Horses featuring MI5 agents who have been exiled from the mainstream for various offenses. He won the Crime Writers' Association 2013 Gold Dagger award.
2. Paul Vidich
Fun Facts: Paul grew up reading boys adventure books and left his corporate career at 56 to writing full time.
Bona Fides: Paul Vidich's spy writing career isn't his only brush with espionage. His uncle was Frank Olson, a CIA bio-weapons scientist in the 1950’s who died under suspicious circumstances. In Beirut Station, set during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, Vidich's novel follows a CIA operative on a mission to assassinate a Hezbollah leader amidst the turmoil of war. Vidich's authentic storytelling and attention to detail not only offer a gripping portrayal of the blurred lines between allies and enemies but also position him as a notable figure in the spy genre, drawing comparisons to the late John le Carré.
3. David McCloskey
Fun Facts: He revealed there really is a hotdog vending machine at CIA HQ and once compared espionage to clandestine journalism.
Bona Fides: Former CIA analyst David McCloskey is the author of Damascus Station and Moscow X. Renowned for his CIA contributions, including writing for the President's Daily Brief and providing classified testimony to Congressional committees, McCloskey specialized in Middle East field stations during the Arab Spring and focused on counterterrorism in Syria and Iraq. Is it any wonder he's good at the spying game?
4. Nick Harkaway
Fun fact: Le Carré's youngest son, Nick, also a writer, is alternatively described as 'J. G. Ballard’s geeky younger brother' and 'William Makepeace Thackeray on acid'.
Bona fides: Harkaway picked up kudos for his first book, The Gone Away World, a sci-fi epic nominated for a Locus Award for Best First Novel and a BSFA Award for Best Novel. He's written four more novels in the decade since, but the spy genre is a tricky game. Harkaway plans to tackle a new George Smiley novel next, exploring the missing years between The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It's an ambitious project but Harkaway (real name Nicholas Cornwell) grew up with the evolution of the 'Circus' so it is also a deeply personal one.
5. Charlotte Philby
Fun Fact: As a young woman, she read John le Carré’s books as an exercise to understand her grandfather, Kim Philby, the notorious KGB double agent. Bona Fides: The former investigative reporter for London’s The Independent newspaper wrote three of her own critically acclaimed espionage books including The Second Woman. She’s also published a biography about the Cambridge Five’s Philby in 2022 using old letters and family photos. Her parents would take her to visit Kim in Russia on family holidays after he fled to Moscow and it eventually became apparent that he was not just a doting grandad.
The death of espionage writerJohn le Carréwas a blow to fans, but there are plenty of exceptional writers vying to become heir to le Carré’s legacy in the spy genre. SPYSCAPE checked out 10 must-read espionage writers and possible successors.
Fun Fact: In 1995, Cumming was approached for recruitment by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) but said he did not go on to work for them. Bona fides:Charles Cumming is the Scottish-born author of Box 88. His hero, Alec Milius, is a flawed loner who - when we meet him in his 20s - is instructed by MI5 to sell doctored research on oil exploration to the CIA. The Times described Cumming’s second novel, The Spanish Game, as one of the finest spy books of all time alongside Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Funeral in Berlin, and The Scarlet Pimpernel.
7. Frank Gardner
Fun Fact: Arabian explorer Sir Wilfred Thesiger inspired Gardner to learn Arabic so he worked in a brick factory and then went backpacking from Morocco to Istanbul.
Bona Fides: Gardner trained with the British Army biathlon team and he was later an officer. The author of the spy thrillers Crisis and Ultimatum has reported for the BBC on Afghanistan and Somali. He was shot six times at close range while on assignment in Saudi Arabia in 2004, left wounded and dependent on a wheelchair. He continued working full-time as a security correspondent after the shooting while writing books.
8. Dame Stella Rimington
Fun Fact: The KGB tried to recruit Rimington at a dinner party in the 1960s when she was a young spy. Bona fides: London-born Dame Stella Rimington knows her Black Ops from her OpSec. The author of the Liz Carlyle series was MI5’s first female director-general in 1992 having worked in counter-subversion, counterterrorism, and led the fight against Irish Republican terrorism. She wrote her autobiography and more than half a dozen novels after retiring and shows no signs of slowing down.
9. Robert Littell
Fun Fact: Littell joined the US Navy at age 21 and worked as a communications officer aboard a destroyer where he deciphered the ship’s coded messages.
Bona fides: Former Newsweek Cold War journalist Robert Littell has been favorably compared to le Carré and former spy-turned-author Graham Greene. The Brooklyn-born author has focused on Russia since his first novel The Defection of A.J. Lewinter. Among his critically acclaimed works are the New York Times bestselling The Company, adapted for a mini-series, and Legends which won the Los Angeles Times Best Thriller of 2005.
10. Simon Conway
Fun Fact: He wrote his first book at age 10 on 200 pages of foolscap and admired Ernest Hemingway, Robert Stone, and George Orwell - all of whom served in the military or in overseas work - so he decided to join up.
Bona Fides: The former British Army officer and international aid worker lives in Scotland but clears landmines and the other war debris around the world and successfully campaigned to achieve an international ban on cluster bombs. Simon Conway has written more than half a dozen books including A Loyal Spy, which won the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award in 2010 for Best Thriller of the Year.
11. James Wolff
Fun Fact: He grew up in a Lebanese neighborhood that includedan eccentric homeless man believed to be harmless - until he rolled into Beirut atop the first Israeli tank in 1982. Bona Fides: The author of How To Betray Your Country worked for the British government for more than a decade but he’s not revealing where or his real name. During Lebanon’s long civil war he was always terrified his father would be kidnapped, which came to be the subject of James Wolff’s first novel, Beside the Syrian Sea.
12. Tom Bradby
Fun Fact: Tom wrote the screen adaptation of his first novel, the award-winning Shadow Dancer(2012) starring Clive Owen and Gillian Anderson.
Bona Fides: Born in Malta, Tom Bradby has an impressive list of spy books to his credit in addition to being the anchor for Britain’s ITV news. In the 90s, Bradby was ITV's Ireland correspondent and later Asia correspondent where he was seriously injured covering riots. Bradby carried out the first official interview of Prince William and Kate Middleton at the prince’s request after the couple's engagement in 2010.
This story is part of our weekly briefing. Sign up to receive the FREE briefing to your inbox.
Gadgets & Gifts
Put your spy skills to work with these fabulous choices from secret notepads & invisible inks to Hacker hoodies & high-tech handbags. We also have an exceptional range of rare spy books, including many signed first editions.
We all have valuable spy skills - your mission is to discover yours. See if you have what it takes to be a secret agent, with our authentic spy skills evaluation* developed by a former Head of Training at British Intelligence. It's FREE so share & compare with friends now!
.webp)
