This April marks the 70th anniversary of the publication of Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel, Casino Royale.
While many literary spies have captured readers’ imaginations, before and since, few have entered the public consciousness like James Bond.
Portrayed in 27 films, by seven different actors (if we include David Niven’s 1967 spy parody), the character has continued to appear in new novels long after the death of his creator.
Keep reading for your rundown of some of the best spy novels of the last 70 years.
1. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming (1953)
Fleming’s first book in the James Bond series introduced the world to secret agent 007.
Le Chiffre, the paymaster for a Russian-controlled French trade union, has lost money to a bad investment. Keen to recoup his losses quickly, he heads to the Royale-les-Eaux casino in a last-ditch attempt to win it back.
In steps James Bond, who MI6 send to the Baccarat table to bankrupt both Le Chiffre and the French union. Assigned Vesper Lynd as a companion to complete his cover, the pair grow closer as the escalating prize pot draws interest from the CIA and French secret service.
As the stakes in the game grow higher, high-speed car chases, kidnappings, and torture all set the tone by which the series would come to be known.
2. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene (1958)
James Wormold is living a quiet life as a Havana-based vacuum cleaner salesman when he is approached by Hawthorne of British intelligence. Wormold’s wife has recently left him and he is struggling to afford the lifestyle his devoutly Catholic – but quietly manipulative – daughter Milly has come to expect.
Flattered by Hawthorne’s offer to join MI6, and in the need of the money, Wormold promptly accepts. But with little idea about what the spy game actually entails, what should he do next?
Such is the set-up for Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana.
As Wormold sets about recruiting “informants” and uncovering secret blueprints (which look suspiciously like close-ups of vacuum cleaner parts) Wormold settles into his role. Until that is, his fabricated reports start coming true.
A parody of the intelligence service of which he was a part, Greene’s novel pokes fun at the absurdities of espionage, while also functioning as a page-turning thriller.
3. The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John le Carré (1963)
John Le Carré (real name David Cornwell) wrote more than 20 novels throughout his long career. Many of them were based on his time working for MI5 and MI6, a unit referred to as “The Circus” in his fictional retellings.
Le Carré’s final novel, Silverview, was released posthumously in 2021, but it was his third novel, 1963’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold that shot him to fame.
A Cold War thriller, the novel follows the final mission of British agent Alec Leamas. Following the death of his last undercover operatives, Leamas is keen to come “in from the cold” but is instead given one final mission.
He heads to East Germany undercover, as a defector, secretly tasked with bringing down German Intelligence.
In the 1965 film adaptation, Alec Leamas was played by Richard Burton.
4. At Risk by Stella Rimington (2004)
Dame Stella Rimington was the first female Director General of MI5. She held the role between 1992 and 1996.
Following 2001’s memoir, Open Secret, Remington released her debut novel in 2004.
The book follows 30-something MI5 intelligence officer Liz Carlyle as she hunts down a member of a terrorist cell, newly arrived in the UK.
The infiltrator is an “invisible” – a native of the target country able to move freely and remain hidden. Carlyle must use all her skill and experience to get inside the terrorist’s head if she has any hope of catching them. And the clock is ticking.
Rimington uses her vast knowledge of spy operations to create a taut and pacy thriller debut. A further nine Liz Carlyle novels followed. Her latest, 2022’s The Devils Bargain, introduces readers to CIA analyst Manon Tyler.
5. Forever and a Day by Anthony Horowitz (2018)
Since Ian Fleming’s death in 1964 several authors have taken up the mantle and penned further James Bond novels.
John Gardner and Raymond Benson made multiple attempts, while Sebastian Faulks’ Devil May Care (2008) – released to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Ian Fleming’s birth – was a particular standout.
In 2011 Jeffery Deaver released Carte Blanche, a huge updating of James Bond’s character. No longer a second world war veteran and Cold War agent, Bond is now fresh from a tour of Afghanistan and fighting terrorists in 2011 Serbia.
Arguably the most compelling entry into the post-Fleming canon, though, is 2018’s Forever and a Day.
Bringing us right up to date by taking us back to the very beginning, the latest Bond offering (author Anthony Horowitz’s second) is an origin story.
When 007 is found washed up on a beach, a new secret agent is required to fill the tuxedo. M recruits Commander Bond.
What follows is the story of how Bond got his license to kill, with all the fast cars, femme fatales, and terrorist baddies we’ve come to expect. What’s more, this outing was commissioned by the Fleming estate and includes previously unpublished material written by Fleming himself.