Slow Horses creator Mick Herron has won the highest accolade for crime writers after coming up with a tale about failing and chaotic spies.
The 61-year-old novelist is the 2025 recipient of the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) diamond dagger, which has previously been awarded to Lynda La Plante, Ruth Rendell, Peter James, Lee Child, James Lee Burke and John Le Carre.
Herron said: “I’ve spent the best part of my life – not the majority of it; just the best part – in the crime writers’ community, and to receive this accolade from these friends and colleagues is both a career highlight and a personal joy.
“I’m touched and thrilled beyond measure, and will try to live up to the honour.”
His book series, Slough House, has been adapted into an Apple TV+ series Slow Horses, starring Scottish actor Jack Lowden and Oscar winner Gary Oldman as part of an MI5 team who have been sent to a rundown office for agents who have made serious mistakes in their jobs.
It has been nominated for best drama series, and earned Oldman a leading actor nomination, and Lowden two supporting actor nods at the Bafta TV awards.
Baby Ganesh Detective Agency series novelist Vaseem Khan, who is chairman of the CWA, said: “I am delighted that the diamond dagger judges have picked Mick as their recipient this year. Few could be more deserving.
“Mick is the quintessential writers’ writer and his Slough House novels have, by general consensus, reinvented the spy thriller, going on to delight millions on the page and onscreen.
“The diamond dagger is a fitting tribute to a writer whose work has become both cultural marker and record of our time.”
Herron’s first novel, Slow Horses, published in 2010, began the series; it was followed by Dead Lions, which received the CWA gold dagger award in 2013; Real Tigers; Spook Street, which snapped up the Ian Fleming steel dagger award in 2017; London Rules; Joe Country; and Slough House.
His most recent novel in the Slough House franchise was 2022’s Bad Actors, which featured a governmental think-tank member who wanted to curb the intelligence service, go missing.
Herron’s Zoe Boehm series is being adapted into another Apple TV+ show, titled Down Cemetery Road, and starring Love Actually star Dame Emma Thompson and His Dark Materials actress Ruth Wilson.
Born in Newcastle, Herron studied English Literature at Oxford, where he continues to live.
He began writing fiction while working as a sub-editor in London, before publishing his first novel, Down Cemetery Road, in 2003, the first in the Zoe Boehm series.
The diamond dagger is presented at the annual CWA Dagger Awards on July 3.
The CWA was founded in 1953 by John Creasey and the awards began in 1955.
