The greatest spy novels ever written

THE spy novel was born in Britain in the late 19th century, educated in World War 1, came of age during World War 2 and matured during the Cold War.

Two of its exponents, John le Carré and Ian Fleming, became worldwide brands. It's partly because of them, said a former chief of MI6, that a British Intelligence officer can leave his or her calling card anywhere in the world and be sure of recognition – if not always of welcome.

In the early 20th century, novels by Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad and Erskine Childers featured spying, but the first and best truly modern spy writing was Somerset Maugham's Ashenden (1928), based on his wartime experiences.

Others such as John Buchan and Eric Ambler drew on the subject between the wars but it was Fleming's first Bond novel, Casino Royale (1953), that caught the zeitgeist, tapping into the global yearning for glamorous adventure.

Graham Greene's comedy Our Man in Havana (1958) followed up in the spirit of post-war iconoclasm.

It was le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), however, that became the quintessential Cold War spy novel, arguably his most important if not quite his best.

That honour, for me, goes to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974), with its echoes of Philby and the Cambridge spies.

• Alan Judd's Inside Enemy (Simon & Schuster) was released in June.