Four writers approach the spying game from different angles, the academic expert, the biographer, the novelist and the journalist. But what is the reality? Is it like the television worlds of Spooks and Homeland, the film world of James Bond, or do we learn more from the writings of those such as Stella Rimmington who have recently worked in this shadowy world?

Professor Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones is an authority on American intelligence history and has written extensively on the CIA and FBI. His latest book, In Spies We Trust: The Story of Western Intelligence, tells the full story of the Anglo-American intelligence relationship. Biographer Clare Mulley’s The Spy Who Loved is the story of Christine Glanville, one of World War II’s most daring spies. Novelist Chris Morgan Jones worked for Kroll, the world’s largest investigations company, for ten years. His acclaimed debut novel, An Agent of Deceit, draws on all his experience and knowledge, in particular of Russian affairs.

The panel is chaired by former Financial Times security correspondent Mark Huband whose new book, Trading Secrets, uncovers some extraordinary tales of espionage from recent decades.