Spectator Books: Mick Herron on how to be a crap spy
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 21 August 2019
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This summer, Mick Herron has published the latest of his Jackson Lamb novels, Joe Country. It's a terrific read. So what better time to look back to the conversation Sam had with Mick Herron, a summer and a bit ago?
Spectator Books is a series of literary interviews and discussions on the latest releases in the world of publishing, from poetry through to physics. Presented by Sam Leith, The Spectator's Literary Editor. Hear past episodes of Spectator Books here.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before you start listening to this podcast, a reminder that we have a special subscription offer. |
| 0:04.8 | You can get 12 issues of the Spectator for £12, as well as a £20,000 Amazon voucher. |
| 0:10.3 | Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher if you'd like to get this offer. |
| 0:15.0 | Hello and welcome to Spectator Books Podcast. |
| 0:17.9 | Now unfortunately, even books editors have to go on holiday sometimes. So the usual podcast is going to be taking a hiatus for a podcast. Now unfortunately, even books editors have to go on holiday sometimes. So the usual |
| 0:23.0 | podcast is going to be taking a hiatus for a couple of weeks. But so that there's not a gap in |
| 0:28.4 | your life where the podcast once was, we're bringing out a couple of our old favourites to tide |
| 0:34.3 | you over these summer months. This summer, Mick Heron has published the latest of his Jackson Lamb novels, Joe Country. |
| 0:41.3 | It's a terrific read, as I can testify having it reviewed it myself. |
| 0:44.7 | So what better time to look back to the conversation I had with Mick about his Jackson |
| 0:50.3 | Lamb spy novels back a summer and a bit ago. |
| 0:59.1 | Music Jackson Lamb's spy novels back a summer and a bit ago. Hello and welcome to The Spectator Books podcast. |
| 1:02.1 | I'm Sam Leith, the literary editor for The Spectator. |
| 1:04.6 | And this week I'm very pleased to be joined by Mick Heron, the author of now five spy novels in the Jackson Lamb series, which have been acclaimed |
| 1:13.6 | kind of almost universally as the great new thing in spy writing and festooned with so many |
| 1:21.0 | prizes and medals, he clanks. The latest one is London rules. Mick, welcome. Thanks, I'm |
| 1:27.2 | and what are London rules? Oh, welcome. Thanks, I'm I. And what are London rules? |
| 1:29.3 | Oh, well, nobody knows. They're not written down anywhere. So I decided that London rules were the kind of unwritten laws of how one goes about doing things in politics, certainly, not just espionage in London. And Rule 1, which isn't written down anywhere anywhere, but everybody knows, just reads, cover your ass. So much of what happens |
| 1:48.8 | in the novel London rules is about people passing the book for things that have happened. |
| 1:54.3 | There's a phrase in it, political fear. Political fear is the fear that the blame for something |
| 1:58.7 | bad might happen on one of the people present at any given |
| 2:01.7 | meeting. That sort of idea of, you know, cock-ups and cover-ups, things seems to kind of go right |
... |
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