Spy fiction

Our recommendations

From Bond to Argylle: how spy fiction has evolved

Where to start reading John le Carré’s books

‘The right car, the right cocktail’: Anthony Horowitz on the challenge of writing James Bond

From Bond to Argylle: how spy fiction has evolved

Where to start reading John le Carré’s books

‘The right car, the right cocktail’: Anthony Horowitz on the challenge of writing James Bond

From Bond to Argylle: how spy fiction has evolved

Where to start reading John le Carré’s books

‘The right car, the right cocktail’: Anthony Horowitz on the challenge of writing James Bond

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Articles to inspire

If I wrote what I knew, it would be a million words of unmitigated boredom. Write what you can fully imagine.

Terry Hayes

About our spy fiction

The best spies remain in the shadows, but the best spy novels draw out their secrets. For classic spy fiction, turn to masters of the genre, including John le Carré and his final novel Silverview, The Ipcress File author Len Deighton, and Eric Ambler, author of The Mask of Dimitrios. For modern thrillers, try James Patterson, Frank Gardner’s Outbreak and Terry Hayes’ I Am Pilgrim, and if you’re after historical fiction, Robert Harris has to be top of the list.