Readers looking for a quirky Cold War spy story will find much to enjoy in Like Dolphins, the latest spy thriller from Andy Onyx. In the latest installment of his Barbell spy book series, spy author Andy Onyx takes us on a journey through the world of Cold War spy fiction. With a cast of intriguing characters and a plot that delves deep into the world of espionage, this episode is a must-listen for fans of cold war espionage novels. 'Now in Like Dolphins it was to place my existing characters of...
May 02, 2023•43 min•Ep. 206
The Innocent by Ian McEwan is a thrilling novel set in 1950s Berlin during the early stages of the Cold War. The book follows the story of Leonard Marnham, a young British post office technician who is sent to Berlin to work on a top-secret project. Leonard is a naive and inexperienced young man who quickly becomes embroiled in a dangerous game of espionage and deceit. Tim Shipman, in his best spy authors list, ranked Ian McEwan at #77 and wrote: 'Another literary novelist who has tried his hand...
Mar 02, 2023•16 min•Ep. 205
On Episode 204 of the Spybrary Spy Book Podcast, we chat with the author of the best spy book I read last year, Big Bear Little Bear , David Brierley . We are also joined by the publisher, thriller critic, and author Mike Ripley as we dig into David's work and, in particular, how he researches locations for his spy novels. Join the Spybrary Community As I shared in the best spy books of 2022 post, Big Bear Little Bear, published in 1981, was the best spy thriller I read last year. It was hard to...
Jan 16, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 204
Today’s guest is writer Adam Brookes. Adam spent over a decade working for the BBC, appearing on television and radio while crisscrossing the globe and spending extended amount of time in both China and the US. He’s also written for publications such Foreign Policy and The Economist . His first espionage novel, Night Heron , was released in 2014 and was followed by Spy Games and The Spy’s Daughter . His most recent book is Fragile Cargo: China's Wartime Race to Save the Treasures of the Forbidde...
Jan 06, 2023•1 hr 9 min
It is that time of year once again when book critics and reviewers are asked what are the best spy books of the year. Spybrary is a ‘by spy fans for spy fans' production so it is in that spirit that we asked our own Spybrary Podcast listeners and community members to reveal what were their best spy books of 2022 with a twist. We asked our spy book readers two questions. What is the best spy book you have read that was published in 2022? What is the best espionage novel you have read this year th...
Dec 27, 2022•33 min•Ep. 202
In this Christmas episode of Spy Rewind, Matthew and Jeff take a look at the episode "The Night of Whirring Death" of the 60’s tv show The Wild Wild West. They discuss how WWW is the old west’s James Bond, the great Michael Dunn as one of the best villains - Professor Loveless, and Richard Kiel before Jaws! Plus, spy Christmas traditions! All that and more in this episode of Spybrary....
Dec 22, 2022•1 hr
The James Bond Book Club is back! This is the series where we discuss each Ian Fleming James Bond novel as if we are in the year of publication. Today it's the turn of Quarrel, Strangeways, HoneyChile Rider, and a fiend called Dr No! What is the Spybrary James Bond Book Club exactly and what makes it different from other 007 book clubs? On the James Bond Book Club, we get in our time machine and go back to the year of publication. We dissect each of the Ian Fleming 007 novels in order and includ...
Dec 16, 2022•1 hr 13 min
Our Man in Alabama Matthew Kresal gives us the lowdown on the 2005 video game of From Russia With Love starring Sean Connery in this Spybrary Brush Pass. 'The game was the last James Bond video game released by Electronic Arts before they lost the rights to Activision in 2006, as well as Sean Connery's last role before retirement and death.' James Bond Wiki Join your fellow listeners and spy fans in our online community...
Dec 11, 2022•14 min•Ep. 199
Smiley is suspicious Percy! Today we kick off the John le Carre movie club series on the Spybrary Podcast. Once a month, our panel will take a deep dive into a John le Carre movie. To start the series, a full debriefing of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with Jeff Quest of the Le Carre Cast , Double O Section's Matthew Bradford and Spybrary commentator Martin Reynolds. That and more in this episode of the Spybrary Spy Podcast...
Dec 05, 2022•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 198
This week we welcome the former Home Secretary and best-selling author Alan Johnson to the Spybrary Podcast. In this informative and fun chat, Spybrary host Shane Whaley asks Alan Johnson how his background as Home Secretary helped him to write his fiction books Late Train to Gipsy Hill and One of Our Ministers is Missing . The Director General of MI5 reports to the Home Secretary, and whilst we knew Alan Johnson would not share details of those meetings, Shane could not resist asking him what a...
Nov 27, 2022•33 min•Ep. 197
This week we welcome Benjamin Cunningham to the show. Cunningham wrote the recently released book The Liar: How a Double Agent in the CIA Became the Cold War's Last Honest Man a book that the publisher calls “the Cold War meets Mad Men in the form of Karel Koecher, a double agent whose shifting loyalties and over-the-top hedonism reverberated from New York to Moscow.” It’s a wild story of swapping secrets, wife swapping and spy swaps. We talk about the Prague Spring, declassified documents, and ...
Nov 21, 2022•53 min•Ep. 196
Intelligence Historian and Author Nigel West joins Spybrary Spy Podcast host Shane Whaley to share more about his latest book Spies Who Changed History plus, he answers your questions on the Wilson Coup, the Steele Dossier on Trump, meeting Anthony Blunt, Ian Fleming and many more!...
Oct 24, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 195
Sunday Times Chief Political Commentator and spy book fan Tim Shipman talks with Ben Macintyre about his latest work based on Colditz, Prisoners of the Castle . The “entertaining yet objective and often-moving account” ( The Wall Street Journal ) of one of history’s most notorious prisons—and the remarkable cast of POWs who tried relentlessly to escape their captors, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Spy and the Traitor In this gripping narrative, Ben Macintyre tackles one of the...
Sep 16, 2022•51 min•Ep. 194
Spybrary's man in Station L (Northern Sector) author Andy Onyx slipped us this brush pass review of Javier Marias 's thriller Your Face Tomorrow: Fever And Spear He shares why spy book readers will enjoy this modern spy novel. "Your Face Tomorrow by the Spanish novelist of note, Javier Maras. I say novelist of note because Maras has sold over 6 million copies of his works worldwide to date. In amongst, which is this spy fiction trilogy published between 2009 and 2017....
Sep 11, 2022•9 min•Ep. 192
What's life like working as a spy? Spy author Bevan G Roberts chats with former Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) and MI6 trained agent handler Warren Reed to find out. Most of us are fascinated by the craft of human intelligence. It's a trade as old as time, involving betrayal, secrecy, and most of all, danger! Danger to the operative danger, to the agent, danger, to innocent people and to nations. And it's the human side of this danger that keeps us turning the pages and feeds our ...
Sep 04, 2022•52 min•Ep. 192
Spybrary field agent Chris Lueloff slipped us this brush pass review of Bill Granger's spy thriller November Man series Lueloff shares why spy book readers will enjoy Granger's work and boldly declares that Peter Devereaux is an American Quiller. Agree, disagree? Come and let us know your thoughts in the Spybrary fans community. More About the November Man spy series according to Randall at Spy Guys and Gals . 'Peter Deveraux, codename the November Man, is an agent for the CIA. This highly exper...
Aug 27, 2022•14 min•Ep. 191
Join Spies and Books, Spybrary host Shane Whaley as he finds outs more about the traitor Robert Hanssen in this interview with author Lis Wiehl New York Times bestselling author and former federal prosecutor Lis Wiehl delivers a behind-the-scenes account of how FBI agent Robert Hanssen, a church-going father of five, sold national security secrets to Russia for more than two decades--and how America's current political climate makes it still possible today. Three years into his career as an FBI ...
Aug 18, 2022•37 min•Ep. 190
In this conversation with Spybrary host Shane Whaley, award-winning spy author Dan Fesperman reveals more about the real-life espionage events that inspired his latest novel, set in Berlin 1990, Winter Work. The Berlin Wall has fallen and in the ensuing power vacuum, a former Stasi officer and a CIA agent must fight for their lives. On a chilly early morning walk on the wooded outskirts of Berlin, Emil Grimm finds the body of his neighbor, a fellow Stasi officer named Lothar, with a gunshot woun...
Aug 12, 2022•44 min•Ep. 189
Listen in to our first ever live episode of Spybrary. A panel to discuss Tim Shipman's list of the best 125 spy writers. Tim reveals more about his method and criteria for selecting this monster list of spy authors. Joining us are Professor Penny Fielding , author and critic Jeremy Duns , spy blogger Matthew Bradford , and John le Carre book collector Steven Ritterman to run the rule over Tim's pick of the best spy writers. You can find the list and watch the live stream at www.spybrary.com/tims...
Aug 10, 2022•1 hr 50 min•Ep. 188
Spybrary field agent Erich Wagner slipped us this brush pass review of the nonfiction spy book The Spy Who Changed History by Svetlana Lokhova Erich tells us that the book will especially appeal to those of us with an interest in pre cold war Soviet deep cover espionage. More about the book: On the trail of Soviet infiltrator Stanislav Shumovsky, codenamed Agent BLÉRIOT, Svetlana Lokhova takes the reader on a thrilling journey through Stalin’s most audacious intelligence operation. On a sunny Se...
Jul 09, 2022•9 min•Ep. 187
Shane shares a quick announcement on upcoming episodes and explains why there has been a lull in episodes of late.
Jul 07, 2022•7 min•Ep. 186
James Bond fan and Spybrary's Head of Station SA, Matt Raubenheimer gives us his spoiler-free thoughts on the latest James Bond 007 novel With A Mind To A Kill written by Anthony Horowitz. It is M's funeral. One man is missing from the graveside: the traitor who pulled the trigger and who is now in custody, accused of M's murder - James Bond. Behind the Iron Curtain, a group of former Smersh agents want to use the British spy in an operation that will change the balance of world power. Bond is s...
Jun 20, 2022•10 min•Ep. 185
Shane Whaley delivers a brush pass review on Agent in Berlin by Alex Gerlis To live among wolves, first, you must become one... An unmissable new spy thriller from best-selling master of the genre, Alex Gerlis. War is coming to Europe. British spymaster Barnaby Allen begins recruiting a network of agents in Germany. With diplomatic relations quickly unravelling, this pack of spies soon comes into their own: the horse-loving German at home in Berlin's underground; the young American sports journa...
Jun 09, 2022•14 min•Ep. 184
This week, Spywrite 's Jeff Quest welcomes Otto Penzler to the show. Otto shares stories from his many years of collecting books and meeting spy fiction authors. You’ll hear stories about Eric Ambler, Charles McCarry, John le Carré and many more. , Plus, hear about his meeting with Len Deighton, how Ross Thomas nearly lost out on a million dollars, and a shocking revelation about a piece by Quiller writer Adam Hall....
May 12, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 183
The year is 1957 and our guests share their thoughts on the latest James Bond novel From Russia With Love written by Ian Fleming.
Apr 29, 2022•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 182
On April 8th, Amazon releases the movie adaptation of Olen Steinhauer's All the Old Knives. In today's episode, two of our most knowledgable spy movie experts and Spybrary agents Matthew Bradford and Jack Lescamela chat with author and screenwriter Olen Steinhauer and the director of All The Old Knives, Janus Metz . Hello, and welcome to episode 181 of the Spybrary podcast. Today, I'm delighted to serve you an absolute treat a couple of weeks ago, we received an email from the PR folks over at A...
Apr 03, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 181
Spybrary joins forces with the Barbican Station podcast to discuss Apple TV's Slow Horses series starring Gary Oldman which airs today. The first half of this episode is spoiler-free. Today is the day many of us have been waiting for, the Apple TV's Slow Horses series starring Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb is now airing. Through one of our agents I was able to get an early screening of Slow Horses and today you will listen to three of us running the rule over episodes 1 and 2. If you have not watc...
Apr 01, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 180
Today, we bring you a spy author interview. Spybrary hosts Shane Whaley and Peter Newman find out more about Charlotte Philby's latest novel, Edith and Kim . Charlotte also shares memories of her grandfather, Kim Philby, and reveals some interesting responses in the world-famous Spybrary Quickfire Round!...
Mar 30, 2022•51 min•Ep. 179
We get in our time machine and head for 1956 to review the latest Ian Fleming James Bond 007 novel, Diamonds Are Forever . With David Craggs, author Andy Onyx and Spybrary Host Shane Whaley. What is the Spybrary James Bond Book Club exactly and what makes it different from other 007 book clubs? On the James Bond Book Club, we get in our time machine and go back to the year of publication. We dissect each of the Ian Fleming 007 novels in order and include themes such as : 1) Discussing the timing...
Mar 26, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 178
And now for something completely different. We just decoded a brush pass from, author Clarke Mayer who shares his thoughts on a spy video game called Metal Gear Solid.
Mar 19, 2022•9 min•Ep. 177
