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I've been a spy for almost all of my adult life - I don't like being in the spotlight.

I've always wanted to play a spy, because it is the ultimate acting exercise. You are never what you seem.

I think I would make a good spy. I can sort of be a chameleon. People don't notice me very easily. I never get recognized.

I wrote 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' at the age of 30 under intense, unshared personal stress and in extreme privacy. As an intelligence officer in the guise of a junior diplomat at the British Embassy in Bonn, I was a secret to my colleagues, and much of the time to myself.

I think I would have been a hopeless spy. I love telling stories and am almost entirely unable to keep a secret.

In my head, I think I'd make a perfect spy, but in reality, I don't think I'd fare very well.

I invented the historical spy novel.

I'm not paranoid, no. I'm different in that I have enemies. Very real ones.

I've always wanted to be a spy, and frankly I'm a little surprised that British intelligence has never approached me.