Licence to Spill is Spybrary's Q&A series in which spy authors are grilled by spy thriller book fans.
Licence to Spill with I.S.Berry
Writing was a way for me to make sense of my years in espionage.
I.S. Berry
Welcome to Licence to Spill, Spybrary’s spy author Q&A series, where we put spy writers under the spotlight and ask them the questions spy thriller readers really want answered. This time it's I.S. Berry, former CIA operations officer and author of Edgar Award-winning The Peacock and the Sparrow.
Take us back to the beginning — what was the book or author that made you think, “I want to write spy fiction”?
For me, it wasn't a book so much as a career. Working as a case officer for the CIA was my inspiration. I spent six years as a spy, including a year in wartime Baghdad, and it had a profound effect on me, good and bad. The work was rewarding and purposeful, and I loved being in the vortex of the world's most pressing issues — but manipulating people took a toll, and making weighty decisions in a murky world with no clear right and wrong is its own unique burden. Writing was a way for me to make sense of my years in espionage.
I lived in Bahrain for two years during the Arab Spring, and when I returned I tried writing a novel. At first it was only spy-flavoured, not really a spy novel. But I quickly realised the espionage portions were better than the rest — more authentic, with a different texture. So I rewrote my story. Spy novels, I realised, were the right lane for me.
For those new to your work, where do you recommend Spybrary readers start?
Easy one — I only have one book out, The Peacock and the Sparrow!
Walk us through your research process. Are you an “immerse yourself for months before writing” person? Do you visit and scope out locations?
I'm not an immersive researcher — I think it's too easy to fall down rabbit holes and lose sight of your story. I do a bit of research at the beginning, start writing, then supplement along the way. At the outset it's hard to know everything you'll need to learn.
But yes, absolutely, I've visited every place I've written about. My readers expect transportive writing, and setting is a character in all of my books. Espionage literature relies heavily on locale — so much of the story is twined with a particular place. That's true of my favourite spy novels too: The Quiet American, The Innocent, The Informer, The Year of Living Dangerously. My second book, Swallowtail, is set in Europe during the Global War on Terror, following characters across the continent but focusing on Vienna and Schaerbeek, an Arab enclave of Brussels — both places with distinctive personalities I tried to bring to life.
Which era of espionage is your absolute favourite to write in, and what makes it so irresistible?
Both my books are set in the post-Cold-War era — Peacock during the Arab Spring, Swallowtail during the Global War on Terror, with flashbacks to Iraq in the '80s and '90s. Modern geopolitics feel fresh and relevant, and I've lived overseas and witnessed defining events during this era, so I can write about it knowledgeably. My CIA career was defined by the post-9/11 world of terrorism and counterterrorism, so it feels natural.
I've avoided present day, partly because any story would be fraught with domestic politics — unpleasant enough off the page — and partly because tradecraft has changed radically since I was a spy, especially the degree and nature of technical surveillance. I'm passionate about the human side of espionage and love the old sticks-and-bricks tradecraft; I'm less drawn to stories where computers figure everything out and ubiquitous monitoring has done away with the actual mechanics of spying. That said, I'd be open to writing a different era, probably something more historic.
Which spy fiction book do you wish you had written yourself, and why?
The Quiet American, easily. (Peacock, as many Spybrarians know, is a homage to it.) It's the only book that makes me feel utterly inadequate as a writer. In one relatively short tale, Graham Greene encapsulates the quandaries of foreign involvement, captures a geopolitical moment, and portrays international politics at a human level. Even before John le Carré, Greene proved spy novels could rise to literature. His writing is so good it makes me want to cry.
New to the work of Graham Greene? Check out our Graham Greene Spy Fiction Guide.
What are you reading right now, and what's the one book in your TBR pile you keep meaning to get to but haven't yet?
The Revolutionists by Jason Burke, about the terrorist movements of the 1970s — I've been dipping into it for research for months, but it's also just a great read. On my nightstand is The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, about a prisoner of war on the Burma Railway. So many people have recommended it.
Great spy fiction lives or dies on its antagonists. What makes a truly great spy fiction villain, and how do you approach writing yours?
My stories are a bit unusual in that every character is part hero, part villain — I don't have clear-cut protagonists and antagonists. The best villains are messy and mixed; part of you is rooting for them, or at least unsure whether you should. That's the essence of espionage: who's good and who's bad? Look at The Quiet American — it's hard to even identify the villain. Is it Fowler, who arranges his friend's murder? Or Pyle, who steals Fowler's lover and hubristically interferes in a country's affairs?
What's the one detail — a location, a piece of tradecraft, a historical fact — you uncovered during research that was so good you had to put it in the book?
In The Peacock and the Sparrow, a Swedish gunrunner named Sven has an affinity for the mob practice of cementing a traitor's shoes and throwing him in the river. I learned there's an entire history behind “cement shoes,” and oddly enough it's achieved cult status in Sweden. So I included a Swedish expression for it in the book — ståplats i Nybroviken — a wink to my Scandinavian readers.
What is the strangest or most unexpected place, situation, person, or story you have ever taken inspiration from?
In Swallowtail I initially wove in a true Mossad plot, Operation Bramble Bush, which attempted to use a television studio to assassinate Saddam Hussein. But rereading the manuscript, it seemed so farfetched — even though it was true — that I rewrote it, instead incorporating the alleged Mossad assassination of Gerald Bull, the Canadian scientist helping Hussein develop superguns for Iraq's Project Babylon. Equally interesting, and reads as more realistic.
Which of your own characters would you most want running an operation you were part of, and which one would you absolutely not trust with your life?
Same answer for both: Shane Collins, the protagonist of The Peacock and the Sparrow. He's wily and deceitful at times, but also an old hand who can run operations with his eyes closed — he operates on instinct, which is vital in espionage. At the CIA I knew people like Collins: warped by the profession but possessing a sixth sense that only comes with experience. I'd also trust Pierre, a Belgian intelligence officer in Swallowtail who's unwaveringly committed to protecting his sources.
Is there a spy fiction author working today who deserves far more attention than they're getting? And what's the one book of theirs you'd start with?
Flynn Berry (no relation), who wrote Northern Spy. I don't think she's considered a spy novelist, and the book wasn't really billed as a spy novel either — but it's a terrific story about two sisters who penetrate the IRA in Northern Ireland. Interesting setting, brisk plot, spare and elegant writing.
You're hosting the ultimate spy fiction dinner party — three guests, real or fictional, living or dead. Who's at the table?
Graham Greene, predictably, because he was a literary god. Liam O'Flaherty, because The Informer is magnificent and because he lived such an interesting life — among other things he served in the British Army on the Western Front, was a communist, and wrote great literature while destitute and shellshocked. And Charlie, from The Little Drummer Girl, so I could ask her what it felt like to be the only female protagonist to flow from le Carré's pen.
What's next for you, and is there anything about your current project you can tease us with?
I'm waiting for the CIA to clear my second book, Swallowtail. It's a prequel of sorts to The Peacock and the Sparrow, telling the backstory of Layla, a half-British, half-Iraqi art student orphaned after Saddam Hussein imprisoned her dissident parents. Set in Europe during the Global War on Terror, it follows Layla as she volunteers to penetrate Al Qaeda — the lone woman to ever do so — first for Belgian intelligence, then for the Austrians. She ultimately becomes a double agent, and along the way tries to learn the truth about her parents and the collaborator who compromised them. It's a story of radicalization and redemption, the clash of civilisations, and what it means to be an outsider and a collaborator.
Thank you to I.S. Berry for participating in Spybrary's Spy Author Q&A, Licence to Spill.
Check out our full interview with I.S. Berry on the Spybrary Spy Podcast with Shane Whaley
I.S. Berry Official Website
More Spy Author Interviews – Licence to Spill
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Alex Gerlis on Writing Spy Fiction
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