Joseph Hone

rdf:langString Joseph Hone

rdf:langString Joseph Hone (25 February 1937 – 15 August 2016) was a British writer of the spy novel. Born in London in 1937 he was "given away" by his parents and taken to Dublin. The story of his unusual start in life is recorded in an autobiography "Wicked Little Joe". His most famous novels featured a British spy called Peter Marlow. The first of the series was The Private Sector (1971), set in the Six-Day War. Marlow's story continues in The Sixth Directorate (1975), The Flowers of the Forest (a.k.a. The Oxford Gambit) (1980), and The Valley of the Fox (1982). During his heyday, in the 1970s, Hone was favourably compared with writers such as Len Deighton, Eric Ambler and John le Carré. Whilst some spy novels, such as those of le Carré are often set mainly inside the offices of the spy department, and attract praise for the depth of their characterization and plotting, others (such as the James Bond series) are set in the field, and provide explosive action. Joseph Hone's stories by contrast, have a foot in both camps, and he became renowned amongst aficionados of the spy genre for both the quality of his writing, and the excitement of his plots. He released his memoir, Wicked Little Joe in 2009.