Alan Judd is the author of two biographies and seventeen novels, three of which have been filmed. He has won the Guardian Fiction award, the Heinemann award and the Royal Society of Literature's Winifred Holtby award. His novels include the Charles Thoroughgood spy series and A Fine Madness, featuring the life and death of Christopher Marlowe, poet, playwright and spy. He also wrote The Quest for C, the authorized biography of Mansfield Cumming, founder of MI6, for which he was granted access to Cumming's diary. He has reviewed widely and has been a regular columnist for the Telegraph, the Spectator and the Oldie.