New Book Series on Espionage and Culture

For anyone interesting in various aspects of espionage, surveillance we have launched a new series with Routledge and are looking for proposals for monographs and edited collections.

‘Routledge Studies in Espionage and Culture’ is a major new books series, which seeks to investigate representations of the intelligence world and how we interact with it. The scope of the series is international and it seeks to blend several disciplines including cultural studies, history, literature and film studies. 

The new book series seeks to generate new insights into the connections between espionage and culture. During the second half of the twentieth century the public became aware of the importance of the role of espionage and security services. Television, radio and print news reported shocking events including the defection of Soviet moles like Kim Philby, Guy Burgess and Donald McLean; the Profumo scandal of 1963 that exploded when the British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, had an affair with a woman who was in contact with the Soviet security services; and the state censorship of Peter Wright’s memoir Spycatcher (1987). Whilst the news sparked the public interest popular culture soon followed and the 1950s and 60s saw the resurgence of spy books, films and television series.

The James Bond franchise of books and films began in 1953 with the publication of the book Casino Royal. Bond achieved mass popularity in 1962 with the cinematic release of Dr No. Over the coming decades twelve authors have written James Bond novels or shorts stories and he has been played by seven actors with the books and films enjoyed by millions. Other authors such as John Le Carré and Len Deighton released bestsellers which were adapted for film and television and brought an often more realistic version of spying to an international public.

More information about the series can be found here.

For details on how to propose a book for Routledge Studies in Espionage and Culture please contact one of the series editors, Nick Barnett nicholas.barnett@plymouth.ac.uk or Laura Crossley lcrossley@bournemouth.ac.uk