Not yet. St Martin’s Press have the rights and will publish The Hidden Man at some point in the future, possibly in 2013. The Hidden Man may still be available via amazon and other retailers in the UK.

A Spy By Nature has been optioned by Silent War films. John Hodge, who wrote Shallow Grave and Trainspotting, has written the screenplay. Silent War also have first refusal on The Spanish Game. The rights to Typhoon have been sold to Cameron Docherty, a Scottish screenwriter based in Los Angeles, in partnership with Gail Salomon. The Trinity Six has been optioned by Universal Studios. The rights to The Hidden Man and A Foreign Country have not been optioned.

My next book will be called 'A Colder War', for publication in 2013. Thomas Kell, hero of 'A Foreign Country', is sent to Turkey to investigate the sudden death of the MI6 Head of Station in Ankara. He discovers that there is a mole inside western intelligence in the Middle East.

I hope so. I always intended to write a trilogy of novels about Alec, but other projects have got in the way. I would like Alec to find some sort of personal and professional redemption. The third instalment would take place largely in the United States.

Possibly. The idea of writing a novel about China’s impact on Africa is intriguing to me. Joe would be the perfect man to send into that environment.

Yes - click here 

Because I moved publishers. A Spy by Nature and The Spanish Game are now available again. Harper Collins also plan to re-issue Typhoon and The Hidden Man at some point in the next 12 months.

No. The first Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) was called Mansfield Cumming. He was born Mansfield Smith, but married a Cumming (no relation either) and then took her name because it was less run-of-the-mill. The letter 'C', used today to identify the 'Chief' of MI6, was originally an abbreviation of 'Cumming'.