For most of his professional life, Mick Herron (Newcastle upon Tyne, 1963) worked in London in the legal department of a company, proofreading academic articles, manuals, and reports on workplace discrimination and unfair dismissal. When he had time off, he wrote crime novels, but couldn't find a publisher, until he created a group of misfits who work in a run-down department where agents expelled from MI5 headquarters for one reason or another end up. With Jackson Lamb and his spies, Herron has won the most prestigious awards in the genre. The latest, the Pepe Carvalho Prize, which he received this Thursday in Barcelona, ​​where he is participating in the BCNegra festival. The British writer is popular with both critics and the public: he has sold more than four million copies, his work has been translated into some twenty languages, and he has found success on television, which has adapted his novels. Slow horses and Zoë Boehm

British novelist Mick Herron (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, 1963) is the winner of the 21st Pepe Carvalho Prize. Herron is the creator of the acclaimed series Slow horses, adapted for television as Slow horses, which narrates the adventures and misadventures of a group of losers who are part of a run-down department where agents expelled from MI5 headquarters for one reason or another end up. These spies are the antithesis of James Bond, but they are capable of saving the agency bosses' skins when things get tough. The novels are dripping with irony but are not pure entertainment: they paint a great portrait of British society, including its darker sides, and have a clear anti-fascist message.