Just a few days ago, in the same ‘The New Yorker’ they asked themselves: “Mick Herron, the best spy novelist of his generation?“For buyers over one million copies sold From the Jackson Lamb series, the question is rhetorical. Nothing in the modern spy novel is that tacky, but there’s nothing quite like that scruffy spy and his “slow horses”, MI5 agents who make mistakes and are sent to a God-forgotten annex, Bog House, where they do the excruciating paperwork. towel. It could be, it just could be: they never miss an opportunity to redeem themselves, to reclaim their reputation.
Despite the attacks, Herron himself did not give up: The saga’s first novel, ‘Slow Horses’ (available here in Salamandra, along with the next three novels), was not a success in 2010, and Constable publishing house refused to launch it. sequel, ‘Dead lions’. But the gaps in cosmic justice remain, and this sequel, saved by Soho Press, won the prestigious Golden Dagger Award. better noir novel of the year. is based on The second season of the critically acclaimed ‘Slow Horses’ series (Apple TV+, Friday the 2nd) in the movie, the delightfully mischievous Lamb (Gary Oldman) and his crew try to prove that retired spy Dickie Bow (Phil Davis) didn’t die of a heart attack, he was murdered.
fidelity to fidelity
Especially in the first season, the script team led by Will Smith (not the actor in ‘Ali but his partner in Armando Iannucci’s ‘The Thick of it’ or ‘Veep’) respected boundaries with Herron’s work. “In the early chapters, sometimes word for word,” the writer from Newcastle upon Tyne explains via video call. “But it wasn’t something I asked for either. Grammars of the page and television are very different, so changes are often needed. They changed the plot a lot in the second season. But they keep nailing my characters and that doesn’t make the differences important to me.”
Referred to as a consultant in the series, Herron is always available to answer questions. “I also went to the writers’ room to comment on the plot and the division of scenes,” he says. “And I did small cameo in the first season [primer episodio, 34:08: cuando el espía River está a punto de entrar en el restaurante chino donde Jackson sorbe fideos sin ninguna clase, Mick emerge del lugar con su pareja Jo]. But first and foremost, I’m a spectator and I still can’t believe that these actors bring my creations to life.”
In the first book, Lamb is described as a kind of Timothy Spall. Or to be more precise, “Timothy Spall went bad.” According to Herron, signing Mike Leigh’s fetish actor made sense a while ago, more than a decade ago, but not now “when he has it” very different look, very elegantGary Oldman didn’t seem like a bad plan B: “As soon as we got on the project, we knew this was going to be something special. He also attracted many talents. Everyone wants to work with Gary.”
He’s also happy with new signings for this season: Aimee-Ffion Edwards (Esme in ‘Peaky Blinders’) and Kadiff Kirwan shine as Shirley Dander and Marcus Longridge respectively, two slow horses connected by certain impulses. “I like signatures even if they are physically different from my characters.. I feel very connected to Shirley and she is an increasingly important character in the books. I’m excited to see him grow on screen.”
Dickens, le Carré, and Steinbeck
After publishing four novels about Zoë Boehm, a private detective from Oxford, Herron decided to enter the world of espionage, which did not mean a major change in the way she worked or dreamed. “I don’t do research on technology, for example,” she admits. “I invent everything necessary. The thing I do most before I start writing a book is to think. Think about what I want to write. For a while, I just read, watch movies and prepare to write. It is a more mental or emotional process than research. I just, I don’t know, check out bullshit like bus routes or prices for things.”
Speaking of his possible saints, he distinguishes between unconscious and conscious influences. The first would be John le Carré, and even more importantly, Len Deighton, who last year reread their first book with amazement for an article in the British Times literary supplement. “I realized how much it affected me without realizing it.More conscious influences include Charles Dickens, because “it is impossible to write about London without being influenced by the creator of London” or, somewhat more unexpectedly, John Steinbeck, “especially ‘Cannery Row’ or ‘Sweet Thursday’, where large groups of people meet each other around a campfire. with their speech.” Just like their relatively slow horses at Marsh House.