JOHN BINGHAM

Few authors have the cloak-and-dagger credentials like British novelist John Bingham, aka Lord Clanmorris, 7th Baron of that region. He did not plan on being an agent; rather he worked as the Art Editor for the Sunday Dispatch before he was approached by a senior agent to join MI-5. When WWII broke out, he volunteered in the army but for health reasons was not sent to the front. Instead, he worked as part of the General Staff. After the War, he resumed his MI-5 duties. Altogether he put in three decades chasing enemy spies, first as an operative and later in positions of higher authority. He is said to have been the inspiration for John LeCarre's George Smiley.