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…

Here’s the first review – at least I think it’s the first – of Agent M, which appeared last week in Kirkus Reviews.

I’m so pleased to be able to announce this. The brilliant Matt Charman (Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Bridge of Spies) has been lined up to write a TV adaptation of my forthcoming book, M: Maxwell Knight, MI5’s Greatest Spymaster, to be produced by Mammoth Screen (Poldark, Victoria, Witness for the Prosecution, NW etc.).

But don’t take my word for it.

Here’s the story as it was written up in the Hollywood trade mag Deadline, and in the Daily Telegraph.

But who should play M?

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

This remains easily the most interesting piece I’ve read about Maxwell Knight. It’s by Helen MacDonald, who wrote it a little bit before her H is for Hawk came out. I was re-reading it yesterday. I think the main reason I keep coming back to it is for the way it brings out a strand of Knight’s character that you don’t read about elsewhere, or at least I haven’t – the idea of his patriotism finding expression in his relationship with British wildlife.

Also, I like any article which mentions Goo the cuckoo, my favourite of all Knight’s pets.

Highly recommended.