The James Bond of the early novels bore no resemblance to the James Bond of the films. According to his creator, Ian Fleming, he was "a boring man" with "a boring name." That is, a typical spy. The cinematic Bond has much in common with Everette Howard Hunt, a real but atypical spy: exhibitionist, romantically in love with his profession, and quite clumsy. Hunt is today a legend who receives veiled tributes in cinema and television.

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