As picked by one of the UK’s leading spy fiction aficionados.
Tim Shipman is a political journalist of some renown and the author of four hefty books about Brexit: All Out War, Fall Out, No Way Out and Out. He’s also a massive fan of spy fiction and one of the founders of the website Spybrary.
I knew that he was reading my new novel Cover Story (on the recommendation of Jeremy Duns, who wrote this fantastic review of the book). I also knew that he had already drawn up his list of his favourite spy thrillers of 2025, which was up on the Spybrary website by the time he received a proof. The digital ink was dry so it was too late for Cover Story to make the cut; not that I would presume it stood a chance.
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So it was a complete surprise when he added Cover Story to the list at the last minute. You can see Tim’s final picks here. A little scrolling may be necessary.
As Tim noted in his brief review, Cover Story is my first foray into spy fiction. It’s fair to say that I was a little nervous how it would be received by the genre’s hardcore fans. If Tim and Jeremy’s response is anything to go by, I needn’t have worried.
In a message on X, Tim wrote: “This is a terrific slice of spy fiction with compelling characters, amusing and well observed writing and a plot which is the love child of both Mick Herron and Le Bureau. I very much hope it is not Roger Morris’s last foray into the secret world.”
Jeremy ended his review with the plea: “I want more.”
This has been a strange year for me. It started with the death of my agent of many years, Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson. Christopher had always been a great champion of my writing. Without his support and encouragement, I felt adrift. At the same time, I stepped back from my day job as a scriptwriter for podcasts to concentrate on my own stuff. Yet suddenly, for the first time in my life, I didn’t know what to write. I had about four or five ideas on the go, some of which would take me in a very different direction from the historical crime fiction I’d specialised in so far. But I didn’t seem to be able to settle on any of them.
In the meantime, Cover Story was sitting on my hard drive. It had been out to a handful of publishers, all of whom had declined. (I don’t use the ‘r’ word.) This included my former editor at Faber and Faber who also turned it down, saying “the stumbling block for me is how hapless the main character is”. That was a pretty demoralising response, especially as Col Newton’s haplessness is the whole point. I lost confidence in the book and put it to one side.
Then, earlier this year, another novel of mine, Death of a Princess, was longlisted for the inaugural Spymasters book award for spy fiction. I was quite surprised, mainly because I didn’t really think it was spy fiction. But when I thought about it, I realised it was actually quite spy-ish. Encouraged by that, I dusted off Cover Story and sent it to Sharpe Books, who agreed to publish it as an ebook, with a paperback edition to follow.
And so here we are.
Writing a sequel to Cover Story wasn’t one of the four or five ideas I was trying to develop. At that stage, I believed the book would never see the light of day. But now it has. And the reception has been very encouraging.
So maybe, finally, I do know what to write next. And the chances are it will feature the hapless Col Newton and his old ‘friend’ Chris Lazenby… What do you think?