In this comprehensive and exhaustively researched study, published as part of the Vernon Press series in cinema and culture, Alan Burton charts the history of the British spy story in literature, cinema and television from 1960 to the present.

[...]

Alan Burton details the critical and commercial response to each of the titles in his survey and is careful to establish the changing social and political contexts which inspired the various developments in the spy thriller and the espionage drama. This thorough and judicious work is

unlikely to be overtaken any time soon as the definitive account of the

British spy film genre.

Journal of British Cinema and Television 17.3 (2020): 415–423. Reviewer: Jeffrey Richards (Lancaster University).