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Book Summary and Reviews of London Rules by Mick Herron

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London Rules

A Slough House Novel

by Mick Herron

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• Genre: Thrillers
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Book summary.

The brilliant plotting of Herron's twice CWA Dagger Award-winning Slough House series of spy novels is matched only by his storytelling gift and an ear for viciously funny political satire.

At MI5 headquarters Regent's Park, First Desk Claude Whelan is learning this the hard way. Tasked with protecting a beleaguered prime minister, he's facing attack from all directions: from the showboating MP who orchestrated the Brexit vote, and now has his sights set on Number Ten; from the showboat's wife, a tabloid columnist, who's crucifying Whelan in print; from the PM's favorite Muslim, who's about to be elected mayor of the West Midlands, despite the dark secret he's hiding; and especially from his own deputy, Lady Di Taverner, who's alert for Claude's every stumble. Meanwhile, the country's being rocked by an apparently random string of terror attacks. Over at Slough House, the MI5 satellite office for outcast and demoted spies, the agents are struggling with personal problems: repressed grief, various addictions, retail paralysis, and the nagging suspicion that their newest colleague is a psychopath. Plus someone is trying to kill Roddy Ho. But collectively, they're about to rediscover their greatest strength - that of making a bad situation much, much worse. It's a good thing Jackson Lamb knows the rules. Because those things aren't going to break themselves.

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Reader reviews.

"Starred Review. Herron combines a strong plot with a fine, often comic style as he celebrates the power of community in response to terrorism." - Publishers Weekly "Starred Review. Herron's sharp wit makes the Slough House novels something special, his team of maverick spies bringing a delightful, freewheeling edge to the genre. This is prime spy fiction with more than a touch of wry." - Booklist "Starred Review. [Fans] will dive into the scrum of Herron's fifth outing (after Spook House ) and thus deeply enjoy the mordant humor woven into the insanely complicated plot." - Library Journal "Herron shows once again that the United Kingdom's intelligence community is every bit as dysfunctional and alarmingly funny as Bill James' cops and robbers." - Kirkus "The new spy master ... The coruscating cynicism and cartoon comedy do not detract from the seriousness of the message: 'Hate crime pollutes the soul, but only the souls of those who commit it.' " - Evening Standard (UK) "The new king of the spy thriller." - Mail on Sunday (UK) "The best modern British spy series." - Daily Express (UK) "Herron's comic brilliance should not overshadow the fact that his books are frequently thrilling, often thought-provoking, and sometimes moving and even inspiring. Reading one of Herron's worst books would be the highlight of my month and London Rules is one of his best." - Sunday Express (UK) "His character [Jackson Lamb] is a modern Falstaff ... He's [Herron] been called the heir to Len Deighton - and Mick Herron's latest mordantly funny espionage novel only backs that up." -Sunday Times (UK) " London Rules confirms Mick Herron as the greatest comic writer of spy fiction in the English language, and possibly all crime fiction." - The Times (UK) "Le Carré looks sugar-coated next to the acid Slough House novels ... As a master of wit, satire, insight and that very English trick of disguising heartfelt writing as detached irony before launching a surprise assault on the reader's emotions, Herron is difficult to overpraise." - Daily Telegraph (UK) "Stylistically, Herron's narrative voice swoops from the high to the low but it's the dialogue that zings: the screenwriters of the inevitable TV version won't have to change much ... Herron is a very funny writer, but also a serious plotter." - The Guardian (UK) "Mick Herron is the John le Carré of our generation." - Val McDermid " London Rules may be the best Jackson Lamb thriller yet, and that's saying something, considering how brilliant the previous ones are." - Mark Billingham, author of the internationally bestselling Tom Thorne novels " London Rules takes the Jackson Lamb series to new levels of nerve-shredding tension, leavened as always with moments of eye-watering hilarity - often on the same page." - Christopher Brookmyre, author of the Jack Parlabane thrillers

Author Information

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Mick Herron Author Biography

Mick Herron is a British novelist and short story writer who was born in Newcastle and studied English at Oxford. He is the author of the Slough House espionage series (soon to be an Apple TV+ show starring Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas), four Oxford mysteries, and several standalone novels. His work has won the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel, the Steel Dagger for Best Thriller, and the Ellery Queen Readers Award, and been nominated for the Macavity, Barry, Shamus, and Theakstons Novel of the Year Awards. He currently lives in Oxford and writes full-time.

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LONDON RULES

From the slough house series , vol. 6.

by Mick Herron ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 5, 2018

Herron shows once again that the United Kingdom’s intelligence community is every bit as dysfunctional and alarmingly funny...

A new round of troubles for the slow horses of Slough House, where burned-out, compromised, or incompetent members of Her Majesty’s intelligence community have been banished ( Spook Street , 2017, etc.), pits them against a group of terrorists who seem to be working from MI5’s own playbook.

It doesn’t usually make headlines when a crew of uniformed men efficiently murder a dozen inhabitants of an isolated village, but when the target is Abbotsfield, in the shadow of the Derbyshire hills, attention must be paid. The time-servers at Slough House, the last group anyone in the know would expect to get anywhere near this outrage, are roped into it when Shirley Dander celebrates her 62nd drug-free day by saving her colleague Roderick Ho from getting run down by a car. Flatulent Jackson Lamb, the head of the troops at Slough House, doesn’t believe Shirley’s story of attempted vehicular homicide, but even he changes his tune after a second attempt on Ho’s life kills an intruder whose corpse promptly disappears and police match the bullets found at the scene to one of the weapons used in the Abbotsfield massacre. When someone tosses a bomb into the penguin shelter in Dobsey Park and a second bomb is disabled before it can blow up a Paddington-bound train, alarm bells go off for J.K. Coe, the newest arrival to Slough House, who realizes (1) these outrages are all being perpetrated by the same team, (2) they’re following a blueprint originally conceived by the intelligence community, and (3) they still have several escalating chapters left to go. Just in case this all sounds uncomfortably menacing, a subplot concerning the threats posed to the nation’s security by a cross-dressing Brexit partisan is uncomfortably comical.

Pub Date: June 5, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-61695-961-6

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Soho Crime

Review Posted Online: April 2, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018

MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | THRILLER | INTERNATIONAL CRIME | ESPIONAGE

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BOOK REVIEW

by Mick Herron

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A CONSPIRACY OF BONES

by Kathy Reichs ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2020

Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.

Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.

A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice ( The Bone Collection , 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”

Pub Date: March 17, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020

GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | SUSPENSE | THRILLER | DETECTIVES & PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS | SUSPENSE | GENERAL & DOMESTIC THRILLER

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by Kathy Reichs

by Renée Knight ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 19, 2015

An addictive psychological thriller.

When a mysterious novel appears on her bedside table, a successful documentary filmmaker finds herself face to face with a secret that threatens to unravel life as she knows it.

Catherine Ravenscroft has built a dream life, or close to it: the devoted husband, the house in London, the award-winning career as a documentary filmmaker. And though she’s never quite bonded with her 25-year-old son the way she’d hoped, he’s doing fine—there are worse things than being an electronics salesman. But when she stumbles across a sinister novel called  The Perfect Stranger —no one’s quite sure how it came into the house—Catherine sees herself in its pages, living out scenes from her past she’d hoped to forget. It’s a threat—but from whom? And why now, 20 years after the fact? Meanwhile, Stephen Brigstocke, a retired teacher, widowed and in pain, is desperate to exact revenge on Catherine and make her pay for what happened all those years ago. The story is told in alternating chapters, Catherine's in the third-person and Stephen's in the first, as the two orbit each other, predator and prey, and the novel moves between the past and the present to paint a portrait of two troubled families with trauma bubbling under the surface. As their lives become increasingly entangled, Stephen’s obsession grows, Catherine’s world crumbles, and it becomes clear that—in true thriller form—everything may not be as it seems. But how much destruction must be wrought before the truth comes out? And when it does, will there be anything left to salvage? While the long buildup to the big reveal begins to drag, Knight’s elegant plot and compelling (if not unexpected) characters keep the heart of the novel beating even when the pacing falters. Atmospheric and twisting and ripe for TV adaptation, this debut novel never strays far from convention, but that doesn’t make it any less of a page-turner.

Pub Date: May 19, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-06-236225-4

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: March 1, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015

GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | SUSPENSE | THRILLER | SUSPENSE | PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER

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by Renée Knight

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London Rules by Mick Herron review – high jeopardy, big jokes and bigotry

Herron cleverly subverts Le Carré in the latest instalment of the Jackson Lamb spy series, a farce around terrorist atrocities

T his is the fifth in Mick Herron ’s Jackson Lamb series, which in characterisation and tone is essentially a rollicking subversion of John le Carré ’s books about George Smiley. Whereas Smiley is the humane genius of the British secret service, his worst vice being reading German poetry in the original, Herron’s main spy is Lamb, a bigoted, philistine, morbidly obese, spectacularly flatulent, alcoholic chain-smoker whose newest grossness, introduced in this instalment, is spitting back into the office’s communal Haribo packet the flavours he finds unappetising.

Lamb is himself found distasteful by MI5 high command; after a previously vague disgrace, which is finally detailed in this book, he was sent as punishment to run Slough House, an MI5 naughty step for those who have suffered personal or professional reverses of fortune.

These assorted career-stalled operatives include Shirley Dander, who starts the new book 62 days clean of cocaine, and Catherine Standish, who is struggling to stay off the bottle. River Cartwright joined MI5 because all the men in his family did, but screwed up so badly that he neutralised the nepotism, and Roderick Ho is an IT geek whose precise character defect has so far been sketchy in the series, but becomes the crux of London Rules .

While Smiley’s crises arose from Soviet-run eastern Europe, Lamb’s emanate from post-Soviet Russia and the Middle East, especially the jihadists of Islamic State, although the eventual solution of London Rules cleverly involves a fresher modern enemy of the west, previously relatively neglected in fiction.

The new book is also set specifically after the EU referendum. Its antagonist, Dennis Gimball, is the UK’s leading Eurosceptic MP, with a wife who writes a tabloid column. As in earlier books, which featured a floppy-fringed bicycling Westminster populist, Herron adeptly negotiates the rules of satire and the laws of libel to create fictional public figures who simultaneously hit more than one real-life bullseye. During a series of terrorist attacks on Britain, Slough House detects a threat to Gimball, making the reader wonder whether the espionage rejects are capable of saving the politician and, frankly, whether we want them to.

Stylistically, Herron’s narrative voice swoops from the high – times of day are given personified sections describing the movement through London of Dawn, Noon, Dusk, Night – to the low, such as a gag about Lamb’s flatulence being “paradoxically bottomless”. But it’s the dialogue that zings: the screenwriters of the inevitable TV version won’t have to change much. Lamb compares ethical behaviour to “a vajazzle on a nun. Pretty to picture, but who really benefits?” Herron’s ear falters only in the oddity that characters of all ages and backgrounds relentlessly say “going to” as “gunna”, which grates on the page.

The dominant tactic, though, is the juxtaposition of big jokes and high jeopardy. Many tragicomedies alternate strands of each strain, but Herron more boldly attempts to wear the contrasting Greek masks at the same time, constructing, in London Rules, a farce around terrorist atrocities and assassinations. Although this approach would prove intolerable for anyone directly affected by terrorism, its success can be judged by the fact that I laughed out loud at the ingeniously ridiculous way in which one villain is finished off. This scene, in also seeming to contain a deliberate echo of Graham Greene’s story “A Shocking Accident”, is part of Herron’s web of affectionate references to predecessors in the espionage genre.

Herron is a very funny writer, but also a serious plotter: London Rules smartly turns on the realisation by foreign enemies of how a piece of colonial knowhow, discovered by Britain during its imperial pomp, can be turned against the 21st-century nation.

Readers may sometimes feel queasy that the creation of Lamb, a man who says the unsayable, gives Herron easy licence to write the unwritable on subjects such as race and disability, in the way that character comedy can allow performers to pass off bigotry as irony. For me, though, these grotesque creations have the subtler purpose of challenging a society that increasingly applies sensitivity and offensiveness tests to public discourse. Where Herron’s novels most overlap with those of Le Carré is in the severity of their critique of the failures of management in post-imperial, pre–Brexit Britain.

The most savage gag in the Slough House books, made ever more explicit in London Rules , is that while Lamb’s gang may be variously incompetent and psychopathic, they are the last best hope of the nation in comparison with the outwardly more reliable types at the top of politics and the security services. Will those who are best at watching their mouths always be best at watching our backs?

• Mark Lawson’s The Allegations is published by Picador. London Rules by Mick Herron (John Murray, £12.99). To order a copy for £11.04, go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min. p&p of £1.99.
• John le Carré

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London Rules by Mick Herron

In anticipation of Mick Herron’s US release of London Rules , the fifth book in his Slough House series, I d id a re-read of the first four books. London Rules was published after the novel Spook Street .

Find a glossary on Slough House terms here and the full list of pieces on the book series here .

But that was London Rules for you: force others to take you on your own terms. And if they didn’t like it, stay in their face until they did.

I wonder if Herron had an interest in magic as a young boy. He certainly is as enamored with misdirection as a magician and just as good at it. We get to see a few excellent instances of him using this ability in London Rules , including one of the most shocking as well as hilarious moments in the series.

One of the pleasures of Herron’s books is that you can never be quite certain when he’s going to zig rather than zag. In this case we learn that sending the slow horses out on their own is perhaps not the best way to keep others safe and to always be wary of Chekhov’s paint can.

The book is set in the aftermath of the Brexit vote and while it’s not the most important plot element it does hover in the background. As an American I’ve been mercifully removed from the intricacies of the whole process of Brexit over the past couple years but I’ve been reading Tim Shipman’s excellent book All Out War and both books take on a feeling of a comedy of errors. In the Slough House novels, the bad guys in the books aren’t necessarily the true villains. Many times, and in London Rules , the real battle is within the bureaucracy and politics. That is what is at play here with dueling politicians and upper administration putting the most important of the London Rules into practice – “Cover your arse.”

The book begins with a brutal terror attack as well as an attack on slow horse Roddy Ho and improbably, they are both related. It falls to the team based in Slough House to keep a disaster from turning into a complete fiasco. Since it’s the slow horses there’s only a 20/80 chance of things working out with only minor collateral damage.

As is Herron’s habit, although all the characters get their moment in the sun, he typically shines it brighter on one or two in particular. In London Rules it’s Shirley Dander. She’s still reeling from the murder of Marcus Longfellow in Spook Street and in addition to completing her Anger Management classes has also gone cold turkey from any drugs for over two months. Her struggle becomes the spine of the book and her actions play an important role throughout the story.

River Cartwright – River is still reeling from the revelations in Spook Street . Will he pull it together enough to help stop the current threat?

Louisa Guy – She continues to be the most competent of the slow horses and perhaps in danger of becoming too normal for Slough House.

Shirley Dander – A vicious coke fiend, but the loss of her partner and anger management classes have subtly changed her in ways she doesn’t even realize.

Roddy Ho – Roddy Ho still has a girlfriend. Also, someone is trying to kill him. Coincidence? Knowing Roddy’s effect on people, I think not.

Catherine Standish – The rock that keeps Slough House functioning.

Jackson Lamb – The slug that keeps Slough House dysfunctional.

JK Coe – After Coe’s experience taking matters into his own hands last book, he’s come a bit out of his funk. But has he found a taste for violence?

Emma Flyte – The Head Dog is finding herself more and more out on a limb without a

Claude Whelan – Whelan’s wide eyed innocence (autocorrect put it as “wife eyed innocence ” which is also appropriate) from last book is gone and he’s starting to become a political animal. But will he make the right choices?

Diana Taverner – The hard as nails second in command of MI5. Always ready to hit below the belt if necessary.

Dennis Gimball – Your run of the mill right wing British politician with a columnist wife.

Dodie Gimball – Dennis’ wife and a newspaper columnist. Loved her husband and the power his position as a politician gives him.

Memorable Quotes

At other times … Lamb attacks the stairs with the noise a bear pushing a wheelbarrow might make, if the wheelbarrow was full of tin cans, and the bear was drunk.

On having the proper personal perspective –

Image matters, Roddy knew that. Brand matters. You want Joe Public to recognize your avatar, your avatar had to make a statement. In his own personal opinion, he’d nailed that angle. Neat little goatee and a baseball cap: originality plus style. Roderick Ho was the complete package, the way Brad Pitt used to be, before the unpleasantness.

Lamb on poetry of motivating your staff –

“… I favour the carrot and stick approach.” “Carrot or stick.” “Nope. I use the stick to ram the carrot up their arses. That generally gets results.” Lamb frowned. “I hope you don’t think I’m using metaphor. This is not a fucking poetry reading.” It looked like a fucking poetry reading, though, inasmuch as there were few people there, and none of them stylishly dressed.

There’s a fine line –

“We’re talking about a bunch of mindless bottom-feeders whose general ignorance of our way of life is tempered only by their indifference to human suffering, we’re all agreed on that?” “Is this the politicians or the killers?” “Good point, but I meant the killers.”

The most clear look at how Lamb became Lamb we’ve gotten –

After half a lifetime battling the forces of oppression, he’d spent the second half revenging himself on a world that had fucked up anyway. If things had gone otherwise, he might have been something to behold. As it was, he was a spectacle anyway; just not the kind to draw admiring glances.

Method of Opening Tour of Slough House

Dawn and Dusk

For the Collector

London Rules was released in the UK first in February with the US edition following in June.

As the book was just released, signed editions of both are pretty easily available at close to list price.

As Herron continues to shine the spotlight on different characters and different pairings he finds wonderful new character moments. Book series always have to balance the need to “Be different, but the same” and, despite the large amount of drinking in the book, London Rules successfully manages to walk that line.

Since Dead Lions, there’s been an alternating pattern of racking up a body count of slow Horses every other book. That means I’ll be nervously awaiting his next one.

“It’s like a bad Michael Caine movie.” Technically, the PM was too young to remember any other kind, but now wasn’t the time.

Coming in November will be a look at the next book in the Slough House series – the novella The Drop .

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6 thoughts on “ london rules by mick herron ”.

Pingback: Spook Street by Mick Herron – Spy Write

I wonder if the Isis Audio Books reader of the Slough House series, Sean Barrett, is referenced by Mick Herron in London Rules? At the beginning of chapter 12, Claude Whelan contacts the editor of Dodie Gimball’s newspaper and eventually speaks to a man named Barrett, a former cop, “whose rich voice it was a pleasure to listen to”. Sean Barrett’s voice is indeed a pleasure to listen to.

Wow, great catch! I’m sure that’s the case. I haven’t listened to the audiobooks yet so I missed that reference.

Pingback: Barbican Station - London Rules - Episode 6 - Spy Write

I just finished London Rules. Apart from anything else it is the funniest novel I have read since I don’t know when.Genuinely laugh out loud funny. Excellent writing.

One minor question jumped out at me. Is Shirley Dander black? My mental image of the character was of a white woman (modeled on a rather pugnacious short woman I used to work with).

It was this line that made me ask the question:

“”From the overhead bulbs a high-watt light left everyone else – Welles and Shirley excepted – colourless.”

Ir doesn’t particularly matter either way. I just have to alter my mental image of her.

Ted, Yes, I loved London Rules. It was a great farce. From Shirley’s first appearance in Dead Lions – “…Dander, who was in her twenties and vaguely Mediterranean-looking (Scottish great-grandmother, nearby POW camp, Italian internee on day release)

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Book review: London Rules by Mick Herron

You may think I’ve been remiss in my book reviewing of late, however I’ve got you all fooled. Or something.

London Rules by Mick Herron arrived several weeks ago. It’s the fifth book in the series known as (either) the Slough House or Jackson Lamb series… featuring the MI5 outcasts (the slow horses).

The former being the location of the rather decrepit office space the ‘slow horses’ inhabit; the latter being the boss – the very slovenly, farty, pretty despicable but smart and surprisingly agile Jackson Lamb.

I’d only read the first in the series, Slow Horses but another book friend suggested I read the rest of the series before embarking on London Rules and fortuitously I received an email offering me electronic review copies of the three I’d missed so I downloaded and binged on all three last week.

I LOVED no. 2, Dead Lions ; enjoyed but wasn’t AS enamoured by no. 3 Real Tigers ; but very much enjoyed no. 4, Spook Street . (And the links on each title take you to my review in Goodreads… so I haven’t entirely been slacking off on the reviewing-front!)

Which brings me to number 5, London Rules .

London Rules might not be written down, but everyone knows rule one. Cover your arse. Regent's Park's First Desk, Claude Whelan, is learning this the hard way. Tasked with protecting a beleaguered Prime Minister, he's facing attack from all directions himself: from the showboating MP who orchestrated the Brexit vote, and now has his sights set on Number Ten; from the showboat's wife, a tabloid columnist, who's crucifying Whelan in print; from the PM's favourite Muslim, who's about to be elected mayor of the West Midlands, despite the dark secret he's hiding; and especially from his own deputy, Lady Di Taverner, who's alert for Claude's every stumble. Meanwhile, the country's being rocked by an apparently random string of terror attacks, and someone's trying to kill Roddy Ho. Over at Slough House, the crew are struggling with personal problems: repressed grief, various addictions, retail paralysis, and the nagging suspicion that their newest colleague is a psychopath. But collectively, they're about to rediscover their greatest strength - that of making a bad situation much, much worse. It's a good job Jackson Lamb knows the rules. Because those things aren't going to break themselves.

I’ve talked in my Goodreads reviews of the brilliant way Herron has of opening the books by inserting us into the narrative via some unseen voice: a cat / mouse; a spirit… and here it’s dawn and dusk. And I’d actually love to include the first few pages of the first chapter here if it wasn’t a huge breach of copyright. It’s brilliant and clever and breathtaking. Here’s a snippet to whet your appetite…

In some parts of the world dawn arrives with rosy fingers, to smooth away the creases left by night. But on Aldersgate Street, in the London borough of Finsbury, it comes wearing safe-cracker’s gloves, so as not to leave prints on windowsills and doorknobs; it squints through keyholes, sizes up locks, and generally cases the joint ahead of approaching day. Dawn specialises in unswept corners and undusted surfaces, in the nooks and chambers day rarely sees, because day is all business appointments and things being in the right place, while its younger sister’s role is to creep about in the breaking gloom, never sure of what it might find there. It’s one thing casting light on a subject. It’s another expecting it to shine. p7

We’ve not got any new characters introduced here, but get to know some of the newer ones better, including a couple of the ‘Dogs’… MI5’s internal police force if you like. And this time around, one of the Slough House ‘slow horses’ is again at the centre of the unfolding tale as it seems the incredibly irksome (though mostly-harmless) IT black / white-hat Roddy Ho has been added to someone’s hit list.

There’s more to it of course and the slow horses are again called to action; and in the background, we’re privy to the political games at the top of MI5, the Home Office and PM.

I really enjoyed this book. It felt as if we got beneath the skin of some of our team more than usual. The plot is still strong, but it seemed more character-driven. Shirley Dander has finished her Anger (Fucking) Management sessions and contemplating the cocaine in her pocket in celebration; River Cartwright is wondering how much longer he can twiddle this thumbs as his skills deteriorate and his mind numbs.

I read this in a sitting and – beware – the end is a bit shocking. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve learned that Herron takes no prisoners when it comes to killing off beloved team members. (And those who’ve read Spook Street will know I kinda mean that literally!) They come and they go….

Speaking of which, I may need to re-read the ending because I just want to recheck Herron’s brilliant prose and where we’re left…. maybe it’s more equivocal than I remember!

London Rules by Mick Herron was published in Australia by Hachette and is now available.

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Crime Fiction Lover

The complete guide to Mick Herron’s Slough House series

English crime author Mick Herron didn’t begin his writing career with the Slough House series, but there’s no doubt these novels represent his most successful work. The London setting, cast of memorable characters and espionage storylines have made the series ripe for adaptation, and it’s no surprise Apple pulled all the stops, casting such famous names as Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jonathan Pryce and Sophie Okonedo with the production of Slow Horses, which you can now watch on Apple TV+.

The central conceit of the books is that MI5, like any large organisation, needs somewhere to place its most hopeless employees, and this place is Slough House, a building just around the corner from the Barbican Centre. They’re not allowed anywhere near MI5 HQ, which is referred to as Regent’s Park although the organisation is no longer based there.

In the dilapidated offices of Slough House, these files spooks spend their time on various pointless tasks, designed to break their will and bring about their resignations, avoiding the hassle, expense and bad publicity of employment tribunals. One of the first things to appreciate is that each novel is an underdog story – a group of individuals, under-qualified and under-resourced, who have to beat their better-off cousins at The Park to save the day.

Part of the popularity of the series lies in the fact these books simply make you feel good. Everyone enjoys an underdog story of course, but on top of that, the novels are about friendships forged from the common bond of disappointment but tested in life-and-death situations. It’s not universally true – no-one likes the character Roddy Ho, for example – but River Cartwright and Catherine Standish form a bond, as do Louisa Guy and Min Harper, and Shirley Dander and Marcus Longridge.

Humour is another a core ingredient of the series. The subject matter allows for some sophisticated satire and some notable current politicians are lampooned pseudonymously. Alongside that are running gags, observational humour and the vulgar insults Jackson Lamb regularly spits at his team. These are remarkably politically incorrect, but work because of Lamb’s unbreakable loyalty to his misfit crew.

That’s not to say there isn’t heartbreak. Right from the first book, Herron shows he’s not afraid to kill off his creations and some of those deaths hit very hard indeed. His deft and sympathetic characterisation affords the reader a connection with the slow horses (the Park’s nickname for their castoffs) which grows with every triumph, every obstacle overcome, and their losses are felt keenly.

Before we discuss the books in more detail, let’s have a look at some of the main characters.

Jackson Lamb is the head of Slough House and a former Joe, or field agent in Slough House slang. This might explain his loyalty to his team when they are in peril, and makes his otherwise rude and bullying behaviour towards them forgivable. He’s overweight, frequently drunk and appears dishevelled, but many enemies make the mistake of underestimating him. Lamb retains all of his old skills and is a fearsome operator. Unlike the rest of the team, the reason for Lamb’s demotion to Slough House is never revealed.

Catherine Standish is Lamb’s assistant, and a recovering alcoholic. She used to assist Charles Partner, who was First Desk at Regents Park until his suicide – something it’s rumoured Lamb might have had a hand in arranging. Partner had been selling secrets to the Russians.

River Cartwright was sent to Slough House after a training exercise left King’s Cross crashed. He’s a serious young man, and of all the slow horses the most upset at his demotion. He was raised by his grandfather, David, a service legend, and grew up hearing stories of his time in the service.

Louisa Guy was sent to Slough House after she lost a tail involved in gun smuggling. She is one of the most competent agents and appears in every book. She and Min Harper had a brief but intense affair which ended in tragic circumstances.

Roddy Ho is the computer whiz, uber-geek and the butt of everyone’s jokes, not just Lamb’s. He’s ineffectual, arrogant and completely unaware of his failings.

Shirley Dander and Marcus Longridge are the odd couple, though they’re not even a couple. She was in comms at The Park before she laid out a co-worker, and also has addiction issues. He used to break down doors and carry a gun before his gambling problems compromised him.

Outside of Slough House there is Diana Taverner – Lady Di behind her back – the ultra-ambitious Second Desk in charge of Ops. She’s a canny political operator with her eyes on First Desk. Her sometimes ally – or enemy depending on which way the wind is blowing – is Peter Judd , Tory politician and grandee. He is as corrupt as any of the villains in the series.

Some crime series can be read in no particular order but this is not the case here. Herron builds his characters and reveals more about them perhaps as the series unfolds. To appreciate them fully requires an understanding of what they have gone through before. Dander’s character arc, for example, can only really be seen through the prism of her developing friendship with Longridge. Beyond the individual storylines exist a set of meta-plots, developing over the series as a whole, which again must be read in order.

Slow Horses – 2010

At the height of the war on terror, a British subject is abducted by a terror cell and his beheading is to be streamed live on the internet, but the young man is a British Asian Muslim and the terror cell part of a far-right splinter group. The group have links to a disgraced journalist that Slough House have been investigating. Involving themselves in the drama, the slow horses soon realise that the machinations of The Park are even more twisted than they could ever have imagined. Meanwhile, River comes closer to answering his most burning question: who engineered his transfer to Slough House? Buy now on Amazon

Dead Lions – 2013

Without Lamb’s knowledge, Louisa Guy and Min Harper are seconded by The Park on a baby sitting job. A Russian oligarch is visiting London and elements of The Park want to turn him because a potential future Russian president who owes British Intelligence would be a massive coupe. At the same time, Lamb is out in Oxford looking into the suspicious death of a retired agent. The only clue he finds is an undelivered text – Cicadas. So, what connects the oligarch with an old rumour of Russian sleeper agents? Herron won the prestigious CWA Gold Dagger for this novel, though for my money his debut is a better book. Buy now on Amazon

Real Tigers – 2016

Catherine Standish is abducted by a disgraced soldier with service connections in his past. River cartwright is contacted by the kidnappers and sent into The Park to retrieve secret documents in exchange for her release. Peter Judd, now home secretary, has plans to use the situation for his own ends, but his Tiger Team have motives of their own which don’t necessarily ally with Judd’s. Lamb and Taverner will have to work together to maintain MI5’s independence, but can they put their history of betrayal and revenge behind them? Shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger, Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. Buy now on Amazon

Spook Street – 2017

Regent’s Park has lost three cold bodies – identities or legends in the trade – worked up by the civil service from birth to provide rock-solid cover cover for a Joe in the field. One of them has been used to commit a terrorist atrocity in a London shopping centre. Another has just failed in an attempt to kill David Cartwright. River goes undercover in France to try to find the source while the other slow horses try to work the angle from London.

Spook Street is one of the darker novels and what little comic relief there is, is provided by Roddy Ho getting a girlfriend, a plot thread which is pulled in the follow up novel, London Rules. It also lays the ground for the events of Joe Country, and at the same time introduces a series villain, ex-CIA operative Frank Harkness. This novel is a series highlight for me, and went on to win the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award as well as being shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award, The British Book Awards and The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. Buy now on Amazon

London Rules – 2018

A North Korean hit squad is conducting a terror operation on British soil, and one particular fly in the ointment is that the plan they are working to is one of the Park’s own. Meanwhile, Claude Whelan, current First Desk, is caught between a weak PM and a populist MP flushed from a successful Brexit referendum. This, like Real Tigers, is one of the more action-packed adventures in the series, and one where several earlier plot lines are resolved to move the bigger story forwards. A befuddled Roddy Ho’s thoughts on The Park’s plumbing is worth the price of admission alone. Shortlisted for a number of prestigious awards including The CWA Steel and Gold Daggers, and The Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award. Buy now on Amazon

Joe Country – 2019

Claire Harper calls Slough House for help after her teenage son, Lucas, goes missing. Louisa Guy goes to Pembrokeshire to find him; after all she had been in a relationship with Min, another slow horse and Lucas’ father. Lucas had seen something he shouldn’t have whilst working a holiday job and his attempt at exploiting the situation is having profound consequences. Frank Harkness, renegade ex-CIA spook, has been brought in to clean up, triggering a confrontation with River at David Cartwright’s funeral. Joe Country is a triumph and, in my opinion, the series highlight so far. It brings to a close several series plots and leads to at last one emotional farewell to a series character. Like the previous novels, it was shortlisted for a number of prestigious wards. Buy now on Amazon

Slough House – 2021

A private funding deal, worked out in secret between Diana Taverner and Peter Judd, gives the Park the resources to strike back at Putin, sending a hit team into Russia to rub out the Novichok poisoners. However, one of the business men behind the deal, looking to make contacts in Russia, passes on sensitive information to the GRU who are looking to escalate matters. Slough House has been compromised, and now a new team of killers is in the UK. They’re looking to pick off the slow horses one by one. Buy now on Amazon

Bad Actors – 2022

Bad Actors takes a look at Brexit and the government advisor who engineered it. Sparrow’s ambition doesn’t end there though. He wants a tame intelligence service ready to do the PM’s bidding and leaks rumours that a government advisor has been subject to extraordinary rendition by an MI5 gone rogue. Thus compromised, Lady Di is forced to go on the run, and has to reach out to the one person she would least like to ask for help… Jackson Lamb. Here, Herron introduces a new slow horse, Ashley Khan, and further develops his subplot of Russian interference in the British establishment. Buy now on Amazon

Also see Mick Herron’s standalone novels, Nobody Walks and This Is What Happened ? Both are excellent books and reviewed on our site. Nobody Walks is even set in the same espionage world as a retired spy digs in to his son’s mysterious death.

27 Comments

Jackson Lamb wasn’t demoted to Slough House – he was given the post, at his request, after Charles Partner died.

That’s how I interpret it. Slough House is his reward for taking care of Charles Partner for MI5.

I think that was the explanation in the Apple TV series, but in the books it wasn’t revealed.

It is referenced in The List which introduces JK Ko and the Germany secret service triple agent

Yes, the books do mention it. I just read it in London Rules, as well.

What happened to River Cartwright?

The best way to find out is to read the series.

Ah yes, and that I am doing, but unfortunately not enough e-copies at the library, so have ended up in the most recent book (Bad Actors). Guess I will have to wait for Joe Country (suspecting that is the needed volume) to become available.

Slough House is the one you want to find out about River. Joe Country, then Slough House, if you want them in the right order.

You have to read the 2022 novella “standing by the wall” to find out what happened to River.

First Slow Horse book, after reading quite a few chapters, i could not get Into. Hoped my favorite character would return. (Had to listen 4-5 times to audiobook last chapters of novel previous to this one. Still in disbelief.) Love Heron’s London, his wit, capability with language and how skillfully characters and plots are crafted. Still, I am broken-hearted and may not be able to finish Bad Actors.

Finish it. You will be rewarded at the end.

I thought MI5 was the equivalent of the FBI and responsible only for domestic intelligence, while MI6, like the CIA, was in charge of external counterintelligence. So how was Jackson Lamb running operations against the Soviets in Europe?

It tells you in MI5’s FAQs: “We’ll work outside the UK where it’s necessary to protect the UK’s national security or to counter security threats to UK interests such as diplomatic premises and staff, UK companies and investments, and our citizens living or travelling abroad.”

There are several novellas that introduce new characters and expand the Slough House world. They’re worth reading in sequence.

love this series- absolutely brilliant. yes reading in order is key and just stack them up next to your bed and don’t expect to move for 10 days. i wish it would go on forever. maybe it will. ps the casting in the series on screen is wonderful. i read the first 2 books then saw the series then dove back in…seeing it enhances if have already read some of the books- how you imagine the environment will change once you see it and LAMB, but no matter.

As another commenter notes, do read the novella “Standing by the Wall.”

I made the choice of reading one book out of sequence because it was convenient. Mistake! Try to read the series as written

i will read them again, in order and in 5 years i will read them AGAIN- hoping there will be more by that time. also have read the additional short stories. an excellent present for a fan of this kind of contemporary noir— you will be thanked.

At the end of Bad Actors there is a short story starring River

Jeez, I’m so relieved to know River is still among us. Any mentions of Sid?

To Sue and your question – read Slough House (-:

I have now read all of them plus the novellas and am rather bereft. I love the tv series too.Please Mick Herron write the next book soon.

I loved the books, read them all in sequence and have also thoroughly enjoyed the TV series. My only criticism would be about the final two – Slough House and Bad Actors. I found Slough House ended too abruptly with far more questions than answers remaining, to the extent it felt like Bad Actors was going to be and should have been ‘part 2’. This wasn’t the case and although you do get to the bottom of it all I didn’t like the way it was done. I also found the books got more and more politically biased as the series went on but I didn’t let that cloud my judgement.

Can’t wait for the next book. ? Where is the short story about River?! not in my copy of Bad Actors.

No one has commented on ‘The Secret Hours’ pub 2023. Very good, but to standard but I am concerned of River Cartwright’s recovery from Novichok (sp?). Is he gone forever? Will he and Sid make it back to be heroes of future novels?

Dear B, I wonder if you might suggest how somebody might write a thriller about the INTELLIGENCE services that took as a basis the competence and rightness of the current government?

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Britain's MI5 Spy Agency Proves More Comic Than Tragic In 'Slough House'

John Powers

There are scads of talented spy novelists, but the ones who matter capture something essential about their historical moment. Back in the 1930s and '40s, Eric Ambler nailed the sense of ordinary people being caught up in the machinations of great totalitarian powers. A few decades later, John le Carré caught the personal and moral ambiguities of what John F. Kennedy dubbed the "long twilight struggle" of the Cold War.

The spy writer most attuned to our delirious moment is Mick Herron, a British novelist whose funny, brilliantly-plotted Slough House books are currently being turned into an Apple TV+ series starring Gary Oldman . These novels boast an irresistible premise. They follow the adventures of a group of maladroit MI5 agents who've somehow blown it — you know, left a disk marked "Top Secret" on the Underground, or slept with an ambassador's spouse.

But instead of being fired, these slow horses (as they're known) have been shunted off to a rundown London building known as Slough House. There, they do suffocatingly dull tasks under the scornful eye of one-time master-spy, Jackson Lamb, a repulsive genius who tirelessly and hilariously insults them, punctuating his abuse with farts. Yet even as HQ tries to keep the slow horses hidden away, they somehow always wind up in the middle of the action.

It happens again in the series' terrific seventh installment — titled Slough House — just published by Soho Crime. This time out, someone has been killing off Slough House alumni and is now coming for the current crop. But why? The answer lies somewhere in an intelligence snafu that involves the ruthless head of MI5, a shambling but ambitious Boris Johnson-like politico, an online media mogul who cares more about making money than broadcasting truth, and that nice man in Russia, Vladimir Putin.

'This Is What Happened' And 'Babylon Berlin' Deliver Thrills And Intrigue Aplenty

If you've read the earlier Slough House novels — and if not, I urge you to start at the beginning with Slow Horses — you'll know that Herron tells his stories with extraordinary verve. He juggles multiple plot lines and reveals character in sharp, sardonic strokes, like this line about the Boris Johnson figure: "Achievement, in other people, was not something he admired: it was like watching somebody walk around in shoes he'd planned to buy."

Ricky Gervais ' original Office was set in the much mocked city of Slough, and in that tradition, the Slough House series is partly a workplace comedy whose employees do jobs they don't care about, spend hours getting on each other's nerves, and earn nothing but contempt from their boss. Herron makes all his slow horses vivid, from egomaniacal tech whiz Roddy Ho — who everyone hates — to idealistic River Cartwright, whose granddad was a legendary spook, to proper Catherine Standish, a now-sober alcoholic who had once been MI5's Miss Moneypenny then drank her status away.

At a larger level, Herron's plots deftly reflect the immoral lunacy of our current history, from terror attacks on malls to a certain member of the royal family partying inappropriately. This latest book is set in a post-Brexit U.K. and the subjects it weaves together could hardly be more timely: news outlets that manufacture slanted news; Russian assassinations on British soil; attempts to privatize the intelligence service; and rich politicians tricking populist mobs into advancing their personal agendas.

Each of these topics is worthy of a le Carré novel. Yet Herron's tone is not remotely le Carré's. He comes from a later generation, one that finds the world of espionage more comic than tragic. Indeed, one of the underlying themes of the Slough House books is that the intelligence services — like modern politics — have declined to the point of travesty. These days, the slicksters around MI5 are all about jockeying for power. They follow what Herron calls "London Rules," whose key dictum is "Cover your backside."

Ironically, the grand exception is the egregiously offensive Lamb, whose scuzzy Falstaffian manner masks the brilliance of a George Smiley. Lamb was a spy back when you played by what he calls "Moscow Rules" — watch your back or you and your agents will be dead. Although Lamb sneers at his slow horses, they're his slow horses, and that means he's responsible for them. The last remnant of British spying's glory days, Lamb may be a bullying slob, but he has an old-school sense of honor.

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London Rules

Mick herron. soho crime, $26.95 (336p) isbn 978-1-61695-961-6.

Reviewed on: 04/09/2018

Genre: Fiction

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#BookReview ‘London Rules’ by Mick Herron #spy #thriller

Click the title to read my reviews of the other books in the Slough House series:- SLOW HORSES #1 SLOUGH HOUSE DEAD LIONS #2 SLOUGH HOUSE REAL TIGERS #3 SLOUGH HOUSE SPOOK STREET #4 SLOUGH HOUSE JOE COUNTRY #6 SLOUGH HOUSE

If you like this, try:- ‘ Waiting for Sunrise’ by William Boyd ‘ Never’ by Ken Follett ‘ This is the Night They Come for You’ by Robert Goddard

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet: LONDON RULES by Mick Herron #boo kreview https://wp.me/p5gEM4-5Rx via @SandraDanby

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London Rules (Slough House) Hardcover – June 5, 2018

• Book 5 of 8 Slough House
• Print length 336 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Soho Crime
• Publication date June 5, 2018
• Dimensions 5.75 x 1.25 x 8.5 inches
• ISBN-10 1616959614
• ISBN-13 978-1616959616
• See all details

Editorial Reviews

About the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Soho Crime (June 5, 2018)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1616959614
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1616959616
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1.25 x 8.5 inches
• #3,040 in Espionage Thrillers (Books)
• #3,054 in International Mystery & Crime (Books)
• #4,356 in Traditional Detective Mysteries (Books)

About the author

Mick herron.

Mick Herron’s six Slough House novels have been shortlisted for eight CWA Daggers, winning twice, and shortlisted for the Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year three times. The first, Slow Horses, was picked as one of the best twenty spy novels of all time by the Daily Telegraph, while the most recent, Joe Country, was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller.

Mick Herron was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and now lives in Oxford.

Customer reviews

• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 67% 27% 5% 1% 1% 67%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 67% 27% 5% 1% 1% 27%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 67% 27% 5% 1% 1% 5%
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• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 67% 27% 5% 1% 1% 1%

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

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Customers say

Customers find the book delightful, excellent, and compelling. They also find the humor witty, dark, and complex. Readers describe the plot as interesting, believeable, and full of suspense. They praise the pacing as eloquent, well-presented, and well-written. They like the characters, saying they are well-shaded and flawed.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the book delightful, enjoyable, and compelling. They describe it as first-rate escape entertainment. Readers also mention it's gripping and never boring.

"... Well worth the read ." Read more

"...in the series, this one may be read as a standalone, but it is so much more enjoyable when you know the characters’ backstories that have been built..." Read more

"... Hugely entertaining and enjoyable, I can only hope their will be many more books to come in this series." Read more

" Five quality books . That’s quite an accomplishment..." Read more

Customers find the humor in the book witty, dark, and wicked. They also appreciate the dialogue and description. Readers mention the book is a black comedy with the same thrills and sarcastic humor they've come to expect from Mick.

"...Part thriller, part dark comedy, part spy book. Herron is an excellent writer who provides vivid details and great analogies to make the story." Read more

"...in the Slow Horse/Slough House spy novel series provides the same thrills and sarcastic humor I’ve come to expect from Mick Herron...." Read more

"...As always, Herron's dialogues are sharp with dark, incisive humour as the Slow Horses encounter a terrorist group almost as inept as themselves and..." Read more

"There is no doubt in my mind that Mick Herron’s ability to write prose is superb ...." Read more

Customers find the plot twists interesting, credible, and surprising. They also describe the story as excellent, full of suspense, and wonderfully descriptive. Readers appreciate the vivid details and great analogies. Overall, they describe the book as a compelling page-turner.

"...is an excellent writer who provides vivid details and great analogies to make the story ." Read more

"...That said, still a compelling page turner with characters I like and fun plot twists along the way. Well worth the read." Read more

"...every time, it must just be that each one is fully realized: totally new plot twists , characters so well drawn they feel like familiars, and the wit!..." Read more

"...The twists and turns are as good as ever and you never know who’s going to be this books hero...." Read more

Customers find the pacing of the book eloquent, descriptive, and stylish. They also appreciate the vivid details and great analogies.

"...Herron is an excellent writer who provides vivid details and great analogies to make the story." Read more

"...end but Mick Herrons prose in the last chapter was so descriptive, thoughtful and beautiful that I was able to come to terms that the story had ended..." Read more

"...I'm used to more depth in these books - this one feels unfinished ...." Read more

" Vivid reading . Story line was compelling throughout the book. I’ve read 5 books in the series & can’t wait to read the sixth...." Read more

Customers find the characters well-shaded, flawed, and hideous. They also appreciate the dialogue that colors each character perfectly.

"...be that each one is fully realized: totally new plot twists, characters so well drawn they feel like familiars, and the wit! Oh, the wit. Sigh...." Read more

"...As usual the characters are interesting and some of the writing had me laughing out loud and grabbing anyone within earshot to say: listen to this..." Read more

"...The dialogue and characters take center stage , however, and fans of Jackson Lamb will be satisfied." Read more

"...empathetic and decent, Louisa and Shirley complicated, funny, well shaded characters ...." Read more

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Rewriting the Rules is a self-help guide that’s not, all about relationships with yourself, with others and with the world, the unwritten rules governing them and how we can alter these supposed rules to better fit our own realities. Part guide, part workbook, Rewriting the Rules takes us on a deep dive into what we think we know and how we can challenge our own thinking to build better relationships with those around us.

If you’re looking for something to fundamentally make you question everything you think you know about relationships, this is a great way to do it. But it doesn’t shift it in a way that feels shocking or unnerving, but makes you think a little more about your relationships in a healthy, considered, measured way. There are little activities throughout the book to help put the concepts it discusses into practice which at times is definitely appreciated and it’s organised in such a way that reading it feels natural, more so than many other books seeking to do something similar.

I also really appreciated the self-awareness Barker shows throughout, in constantly pointing out that primarily, the book is not meant as a self-help guide, mainly things to consider, as well as repeating that not everything is meant to be read as gospel. The author accepts that this book is meant to be dipped into and out of and that not everything will be applicable to everyone, and that makes this a lot more accessible to everyone, rather than a book that sets out to show you everything you’re doing wrong.

As a single pringle, I went into this book not expecting much to apply to me yet I found myself reading intently at many points. It’s not a boastful book, or one that professes to be from an expert, but is clearly well informed, well written and definitely adds a new dimension to your relationship goals.

Rating:  ★★★★☆

Rewriting the Rules (ISBN: 978-1-138-04359-6) was published in 2018. A copy is available to borrow from the LGBTQ+ Lending Library in the LGBTQ+ Lounge

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Culture | TV

Buying London on Netflix review: Gossip! Intrigue! Infighting! Selling Sunset comes to the capital

When the first season of Selling Sunset aired in 2019, it was perfect escapist TV. “They could NEVER do something like this in London!” I muttered, enthralled by the sunshine-filled LA mansions and the fashion-forward cast swishing their hair extensions as they held plastic surgery-themed parties for fellow brokers.

London’s estate agents, by contrast, are a fairly tame bunch with their M&S suits and receding hairlines, and the weather decidedly un-Californian. How wrong I was. Buying London shows the Netflix formula can indeed translate across the pond.

Instead of the Oppenheim Group, we have DDRE Global, while London’s prime property neighbourhoods (Kensington and Chelsea, Belgravia, Mayfair in the centre, with St John’s Wood and Highgate to the north) go toe-to-toe with the Hollywood Hills and the Sunset Strip. It’s trite to call London a character, but as backdrop she’s looking fabulous in the B-roll.

We might not have McMansions but London still has mega-mansions that can stage a good tracking shot. Each marble-clad surface and chandelier sparkles under the lights and cameras of the high production values of a Netflix-backed team.

I was furiously noting the details for each property displayed on the chyron before my eyes popped at the opulence of it all. Yes, there is a crushing housing and rental crisis in London, but I could feel the socialism temporarily leaving my body with every shot of a lavish walk-in wardrobe.

It helps that Daniel Daggers had already assembled a team of camera-ready agents operating under a more American-style individualistic broker model.

DDRE Global was founded in 2020, and pioneers an emerging mode of business where agents build personal brands as property influencers on social media to attract clients and advertise their listings. It’s anathema to the old guard of legacy estate agents, but it seems to be getting results for Daggers and co.

The show could have done with a bit more inside baseball on London’s super prime market. Early in the season we follow Reme Nicole, aged just 21, on her first solo valuation. We know it’s a huge career moment for her, but the show doesn’t bother with the details of how she came to a big juicy number. But as a property journalist, maybe that’s just me.

The audience is here for the gossip! The intrigue! The in-fighting! The drama! Netflix has this formula nailed down and Buying London doesn’t deviate from the Selling Sunset beats.

Attractive cast members show up to good-looking locations in various configurations and immediately recap the latest drama. Then reiterate, to each other and to camera, that they are not here for the drama, they are here to work.

Under the direction of the unseen but implied directors, they take turns to be the assigned gleeful pot-stirrer for the day, cooking up tasty plotlines that elevate run-of-the-mill workplace fuss to three-episode-arc proportions.

Someone has a crush on a colleague, another pair of workmates aren’t getting along. There’s a whole scene dedicated to the appropriateness of an extra-marital devil emoji usage.

On the page that sounds anti-climatic, but this is why reality TV is so popular. It elevates the everyday experience of having housemates, a family, a job, a crush to epic proportions that look as dramatic on-screen as they feel inside.

Buying London is a workplace drama. I’m obsessed with the tension between Lauren Christy, a smooth-operating South African whose ability to wind others up marks out a woman raised with brothers, and Rasa Bagdonaviciute, a Lithuanian newbie whose keen sense of injustice gets her into hot water for being too confrontational. If you’re conflict-avoidant, there will be scenes that have you watching through your fingers and pleading for an HR mediation.

Daggers gets his own tense exchanges with sometime-friend, sometime foe Alex Bourne, where the banter belies the fragile egos that are at play.

The UK property industry still has a whopping gender pay gap and men occupy the majority of top jobs, so without getting too hashtag girl boss about it all, it’s good to see women in property getting the most screen time.

Behind moments of pastry-based snubs and double-crossing, it asks some big questions without painting anyone as a pantomime villain (there’s no Selling Sunset-level Christine Quin here to terrorise her colleagues).

How do you deal with being undermined at work professionally without compromising your values? Should you be be besties with your boss and throw your fellow workers under the bus? The socialism re-enters my body here.

Property shows have popular for ages, but Selling Sunset proved that the reality TV format could make the agents the focal point. In doing so it became the second-most watched Netflix show across the whole world. Will the Buying London cast get as famous as them? Would they want to? Heavy is the head that wears the influencer crown.

One of the agents, Rosi Walden, has been on Made in Chelsea previously and is clearly comfortable with giving as much as she wants to the camera without getting drawn into disputes. Oli Hamilton (and his wife!) must be rock solid to bring their marriage into the spotlight.

There’s no bombshell on the level of Chrishell Stause getting dumped by Justin Hartley — via text! — or Quin throwing a Phantom of the Opera themed wedding. But all that didn’t happen until Season 3 of Selling Sunset. Lets see if Londoners buy Buying London enough to get us more seasons to feed the gossip machine.

'I sell London homes to royalty and the 1%': Meet Buying London's property mogul Daniel Daggers

Buying London: meet the agents of Netflix's hottest new property show

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