The Scarlet Papers: The Times Thriller of the Year 2023

According to the papers, he had unwittingly committed the cardinal sin of being pale, male and stale. None of the above seemed likely to change in the immediate future.

‘The sun has gone over the yardarm,’

Max almost laughed. It was known in media circles as the ‘Lorraine Kelly defence’. The Scottish TV presenter had successfully avoided paying HMRC back-taxes by claiming that ‘Lorraine Kelly’ was an on-screen persona and therefore not related directly to herself as a private individual.

The secret war, the scientific struggle, depended on that. Spying was a performance and the costume, the voice, the initial entrance were as vital as the lines themselves.

The first twenty years of life, he was starting to realize, were all external. Spots, grease, hormones – the bumpy ride to adulthood. The next twenty were all internal, far more difficult to catch.

But counterfactuals were useless. History was just hindsight after the facts. What was that Alan Bennett line? History is just one bloody thing after another. It was often hard to disagree.

the days in captivity seemed to lengthen every time he dreamed of freedom.

‘Oh, Dr Archer, people rarely say what they truly mean. It’s one of the first lessons of spycraft.’

It was always the first question a handler asked an asset, the practical realities of spying so much more mundane than the movie version. Assets didn’t usually get caught by grand, heroic gestures. It was the small things that undid them: unexplained absences from work, erratic behaviour at home, seemingly pointless travel or diversions.