Stephen Ronson

Stephen Ronson is a British historical-thriller writer whose fiction draws heavily on his childhood in Sussex and his interest in the landscape and local history of the Second World War. He grew up around Uckfield, exploring countryside still marked by pillboxes, tank traps, Nissen huts and other wartime remains. Before becoming a novelist, Ronson worked for many years in television, including productions for Discovery and British broadcasters, and later moved between East Sussex and Vermont in the United States. His interest in Britain’s secret Auxiliary Units—civilian resistance groups prepared to operate behind enemy lines in the event of a German invasion—provided the starting point for his fiction. Many of his characters and locations are inspired by real people and places, including members of his own family who experienced the war on the Home Front.

Ronson’s John Cook series consists of historical thrillers set in Britain during 1940. The Last Line introduces Cook, a Sussex farmer and First World War veteran involved in preparations for resistance to a possible German invasion, who becomes drawn into the disappearance of evacuated children. The Berlin Agent continues his story amid espionage, enemy agents and the growing threat of aerial attack, while The Blitz Secret moves the action into London during the Blitz. A fourth novel, The Traitor’s Code, continues the series with Cook confronting a conspiracy surrounding a secret weapon and betrayal within wartime Britain. The books combine crime investigation and action with real features of the Home Front, including evacuation, invasion preparations, clandestine resistance networks, air raids and fears of enemy infiltration.