Having never before had one of my books appear on a Book of the Year round-up, ever, not even close as far as I can tell, like the proverbial bus three have come along at once. I am stunned, happy and hugely grateful to say that M is one of the Books of the Year in The Times, The Sunday Times and the Daily Mail. Thanks to Robbie Millen, Helen Davies and John Preston for choosing it.
M Book Tour!
Some talks I’ll be giving in the months ahead:
20 April – Edinburgh Spy Week
4 May – Camberley Natural History Society
6 May – Clapham Omnibus
8 May – M Book Launch
11 May – Borzoi Bookshop
12 May – Swindon Festival of Literature
24 May – Sohemian Society
25 May – Hungerford Bookshop
1 June – Heffers Bookshop
5 June – Village Books, Dulwich
12 June – The Society Club
13 June – Ealing Local History Centre
14 June – Surrey Heath Local History Club
20 June – Kibworth Bookshop
26 June – Reform Club
29 June – Chalke Valley History Festival
1 July – Felixstowe Literary Festival
2 July – Buckingham Literary Festival
11 July – British Library
24 July – Special Forces Club
9 August – Waterstones Gower Street
22 August – Evesham Festival of Books
13 September – Chiswick Book Festival
15 September – Gloucester History Festival
27 September – Royal United Services Institute
13 October – Frinton Literary Festival
15 October – Thame Arts & Literature Festival
17 October – Authors Club
6 November – Bridport Literary Festival SOLD OUT
6 November – Richmond Literature Festival SOLD OUT
22 November – Folkestone Bookfest
14 February 2018 – Guildford Institute SOLD OUT
21 February 2018 – Dulwich & District U3A
1 March 2018 – Sevenoaks Bookshop
10 March 2018 – Essex Book Festival
18 March 2018 – Aye Write!
10 May 2018 – Chipping Campden Literature Festival
12 May 2018 – Clapham Book Fair
19 May 2018 – The Bath Festival
3 June 2018 – Stoke Newington Literary Festival
23 June 2018 – Portsmouth Festivities
July 2018 – Wimpole History Festival
16 October 2018 – Oxted & District History Society
More soon…
Agent M Review
Here’s the first review – at least I think it’s the first – of Agent M, which appeared last week in Kirkus Reviews.
Spies
I’ve just finished watching Spies on Channel 4, which was intriguing. It’s essentially The Apprentice meets The Night Manager in which a series of contestants are put through their paces over four episodes to find out which one of them could cut it as an intelligence officer. Watching it was fascinating and oddly reassuring. I couldn’t help thinking that the fundamentals of espionage, or at least running agents, as they are depicted in this show, haven’t changed that much over the ninety years since Maxwell Knight began to learn his craft.
‘An intelligence officer is made, not born,’ as a former MI6 man reminds us at the start of each episode. Was the same true of Knight, or ‘M’?
Absolutely.
Just as the contestants were judged on their ability to build up a rapport with potential agents, their charisma, and how well they listened, so too was he – albeit from more of a distance, and often by himself.
Also intriguing was the emphasis placed by the show’s former spies – one ex-GCHQ, one ex-MI6, another ex-MI5 – on the need for an intelligence officer to have some kind of x factor that draws people in and makes them want to work for them. The same was certainly true of M.
Another moment that struck a chord was when one former spook, possibly the ex-MI6 officer, Julian Fisher, said as an aside that espionage is about being able to wait.
Would M have passed the course?
I think so.
If you haven’t seen Spies yet, do. It’s great.
Image (c) Channel 4
Maxwell Knight Biography out soon
Just seven months to go before the publication of M, as it will be in the UK, and Agent M, for everyone in North America – my biography of MI5’s Maxwell Knight.
Here are some generous pre-publication quotes. The first is from Adam Sisman, author of the acclaimed biography of John le Carré, the next from Nigel West, the renowned intelligence expert who has been writing about MI5 and its milieu for many years, and the last one is from Charles Cumming, the brilliant spy novelist and author of the bestselling A Divided Spy.
Praise for M:
‘Crammed with cracking stories and founded on sound research, Henry Hemming’s biography of Maxwell Knight – ‘M’ – stands comparison with the bestselling books of Ben Macintyre.’
ADAM SISMAN (Author of John Le Carré)
*
‘Absolute proof that assiduous digging in the archives can produce scoops. This is intelligence research at its best, especially in the identification of hitherto anonymous agents. Definitely a great contribution to the literature.’
NIGEL WEST (Author of MI5)
*
‘A fascinating portrait of a complex man. Espionage writing at its best.’
CHARLES CUMMING (Author of A Divided Spy)
*
Here’s roughly what it will look like,
in the UK:
And the US: