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The thought occurs that Mick Herron would make an excellent spy. The acclaimed thriller writer, 49, has all the obvious attributes: an Oxbridge grad, quietly spoken, with a careful manner and a nose for espionage. 'I've met people who have been involved in that world, but I've never used them as sources,' he says, cautiously. Involved how? Approaches by shady characters at Oxford? 'No, sadly not. Although this is the point where you say, well you would say that, wouldn't you!' If Herron's literary career is mere cover, it's proving a highly successful one. Feted by Ian Rankin and Val McDermid, compared to Graham Greene and John Le Carre, and winner of a coveted Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger, Herron's series of novels about a group of deadbeat spies - or 'slow horses', in spook parlance - has been hailed as the most exciting thing to hit the genre since George Smiley hung up his mackintosh.
There could hardly be a better time for an author to...