Anthony Gardner and Jane Thynne

Novelists Anthony Gardner and Jane Thynne discuss their latest spy thrillers, one set in modern London among oligarchs and theological unrest and the other in wartime Britain.

Gardner’s All God’s Creatures, a satire of modern Britain, is a madcap adventure featuring religious zealots, art fraudsters and Russian spies. Editor of a religious magazine Ben Fairweather is out of a job when the magazine is taken over by a movement that believes animals are closer to God than humans. He takes on a new job as a pianist at a nightclub, where he meets journalist Anita Scott, who is determined to expose Russian oligarch and newly elevated lord Oleg Ogorodnikov. Gardner is author of two previous novels, The Rivers of Heaven and Fox, and two collections of poetry.

Thynne’s Appointment in Paris is the second in a series featuring MI5 watcher Harry Fox and his associate Stella Fry. It is set in April 1940 as Chamberlain’s government falters and an invasion could be weeks away. A body of a Luftwaffe pilot is found in the grounds of a stately home being used to house high-level German prisoners of war. It’s also where secret listeners are trying to gather intelligence from prisoners’ conversations. Thynne is also author of the Clara Vine series of espionage thrillers and wrote two dystopian novels, Widowland and Queen High, under the name C J Carey.