'Nobody in Tesco buys spy books by women': how female authors took on the genre

Publishing’s long established boys’ club in espionage fiction is having its cover blown by a new school led by Stella Rimington, Manda Scott and Charlotte PhilbyWhen Stella Rimington, the former director general of MI5 and spy author, wrote a new foreword last year to The Spy’s Bedside Book, Graham Greene and his brother Hugh’s 1957 anthology , she was glowingly complimentary. She had just one complaint. “After everything we have done for spying, there is, apart from the obligatory reference to Mata Hari, hardly anything in this book about women!” she wrote.The Greene brothers aren’t alone in their short sight. Wikipedia lists 127 notable writers of spy fiction, dead and living, and only seven of them are women. (Rimington is one of them.) Pick any list of the best spy novels, and it will usually be peopled only by male writers such as John le Carré, John Buchan, Rudyard Kipling, Erskine Childers, Joseph Conrad, Len Deighton, Ian Fleming, Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum.Publishing has become much more gender-blind – before it was: ‘Only blokes can write this’ Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2020-01-07 09:00:54 UTC ]
News tagged with: #male writers #rudyard kipling #joseph conrad #ian fleming #tom clancy #anthology

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Transworld has acquired two new books by National Geographic explorer Lucy Cooke. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Andersen signs debut YA author Julia Gray

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[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sian Williams' first book on surviving trauma to W&N

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[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Nosy Crow buys fantasy series by Ellen Renner

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[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Are you truly thankful for the good books you already have?

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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Oneworld to publish Jihadi John book

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[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Michel Faber wins Saltire Book of the Year

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[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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McMillan first poet to win Guardian First Book Award

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[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book Deals: Week of November 30, 2015

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Alaska parents call for James Dawson book ban

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[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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World Book Night defends lack of BAME writers on 2016 list

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[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital Spy hires ex-Heat editor in battle with BuzzFeed and Mashable

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[ The Guardian | 2015-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Dubray Books launches loyalty card

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[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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SMP Nabs Book About 'Serial' Star

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-11-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Baltimore Sun | 2015-11-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-11-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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