A Spy at War

"It’s a good question. Obviously, the work that I did in that world informs my understanding of it, and some of my writing might be based on actual experiences of surveillance and counter-surveillance. One thing I would say, though, is that my books are set in the present day, and I haven’t been in that world for more than a decade as a professional participant. I wouldn’t want anyone to think that I’m writing about what MI6 is up to in 2025. And as people who read my books will know, my protagonist is also someone who’s on the outside. He is a former intelligence officer, rather than a current serving one. The book that’s due out this week, A Spy at War, is very heavily based on current events. I wrote it about a year ago, but as the Ukraine situation evolves—including what I certainly regard as a betrayal of Ukraine by the United States and Donald Trump and his people…it’s something which I anticipated in the book, to some extent. I don’t want to give away too many spoilers, but in the book, I write about the ways in which Russian disinformation is being used to try to undermine support for Ukraine . Some of the protagonists in the book are focused on Britain, but towards the end, some of them start to imagine that they can achieve more by focusing on the US. It was very much in my mind that if Trump came back to power, people might be reading this book at a time when the betrayal of Ukraine was unfolding. It gives me no pleasure to see that happening."