The Book of Spies

Edited by Alan Furst, The Book of Spies gathers substantial extracts from literary works that use espionage, political policing, resistance and clandestine conflict as their narrative framework. Its selections range from the revolutionary intrigue of The Scarlet Pimpernel through the interwar world of Eric Ambler to Cold War fiction by writers such as John le Carré and Graham Greene.

Because it is an anthology rather than a single historical narrative, the volume moves across different countries, conflicts and decades. Furst’s arrangement emphasises the genre’s recurring figures—diplomats, amateurs, secret policemen, couriers and compromised idealists—and demonstrates how espionage fiction can combine suspense with the political and moral pressures of its period.