BESTSELLING AUTHOR  |  COLUMNIST  |  TEACHER

BESTSELLING AUTHOR
COLUMNIST & TEACHER

“The most exquisite story of heroism, deception, love and treachery you’ll find this year.”
Simon Mayo

SIMON MAYO

“The most exquisite story of heroism, deception, love and treachery you’ll find this year.”

ADAM BROOKES

“Scott gives us expertly wrought espionage fiction that blooms into a meditation on war, intimacy and memory”

LEE CHILD

“This is a rich vein for fiction, and Scott does it more than justice, with this beautifully imagined, beautifully written, smart, sophisticated – but fiercely suspenseful – thriller.”

MICK HERRON

“… the most exciting, involving thriller I’ve read in an age, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.”

LATEST BOOK

A TREACHERY OF SPIES

An elderly woman of striking beauty is found murdered in Orleans, France. Her identity has been cleverly erased but the method of her death is very specific: she has been killed in the manner of traitors to the Resistance in World War Two.

Tracking down her murderer leads police inspector Inès Picaut back to 1940s France where the men and women of the Resistance were engaged in a desperate fight for survival against the Nazi invaders.

A story of murder, betrayal and a passion that will shape a life.
And a death.

FIND OUT MORE

SPIES & CIPHERS: THE POEM CODES OF THE SOE

FREE STORY

There was a point in 1942 when the expected lifespan of a radio operative with the SOE was six weeks.

Clearly some survived longer than this, but many were captured and/or killed far sooner – and for those who were captured, the deaths were slow, prolonged and grim.  The reasons were many but the fact that the enemy cryptographers could effectively read their missives without much effort did not help.  On the occasion when they were complex for the Germans, they were also complex for us…

 

Read the full article
A FREE short story prequel to the novel A Treachery of Spies introducing one of the Resistance assassination teams in Paris in World War Two.

She’s a nurse.  She’s also a killer  – and she’s good at it.  But what happens when her team is betrayed and she’s the only one to get clear?

READ NOW ON ANY DEVICE

LATEST ARTICLES

JOIN ME

Best Crime Fiction for 2018 - Financial Times

A Treachery of Spies is on the FT’s list of best crime fiction for 2018. It’s a great list including Jane Harper, Ian Rankin & C J Sansom.

INTRODUCING SOPHIE DESTIVELLE: ASSASSIN, SPY & REBEL WOMAN

Introducing the character who I now love as much as any character I’ve ever created: perhaps more than any of them…

FREE SHORT STORY

A gripping prequel to A Treachery of Spies. Get your FREE copy and read it now on any device.
READ NOW ON ANY DEVICE

SPIES & CIPHERS: THE POEM CODES OF THE SOE

There was a point in 1942 when the expected lifespan of a radio operative with the SOE was six weeks.

Clearly some survived longer than this, but many were captured and/or killed far sooner – and for those who were captured, the deaths were slow, prolonged and grim.  The reasons were many but the fact that the enemy cryptographers could effectively read their missives without much effort did not help.  On the occasion when they were complex for the Germans, they were also complex for us…

Read the full article

LATEST ARTICLES

Best Crime Fiction 2018

A Treachery of Spies is on the Financial Times’ list of best Crime Fiction of 2018. It’s a great list and includes Jane Harper, Ian Rankin and C J Sansom.

I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A SPY

Every novel starts with an idea. Or in this case, a lifelong obsession…

INTRODUCING SOPHIE DESTIVELLE: ASSASSIN, SPY & REBEL WOMAN

Introducing the character who I now love as much as any character I’ve ever created: perhaps more than any of them…

7 TRAITS YOU'D NEED TO BE A SUCCESSFUL SOE AGENT

Ever thought about whether you could have been an agent? Check out the seven essential traits that would have kept you alive in occupied France.

JOIN ME

BEHIND THE BOUDICA SERIES

NEW YORK TIMES

“A masterpiece of historical fiction…”

JEAN M AUEL

“A powerful novel, alive with the love, deceit, wisdom and heroics of humanity”

PUBLISHING NEWS

“The new Mary Renault”

LUCID DREAMING: ANCIENT SKILL OR MODERN FAD?

Everyone dreams: not everyone dreams lucidly, but it’s there for those who want to step into a world (many worlds) where anything is possible. Here is the gateway to all possible futures, and the answers, if we persist, to all possible questions.

THE CELTS, WOMEN & SEX

“We consort openly with the best of men. You allow yourselves to be debauched in secret by the vilest.” – so said the consort of the Gaulish king to Julia Augustus, wife of the Emperor to the Roman Empress who cast aspersions on her morals. Celtic women were far more empowered than their Roman counterparts – and we’ve barely got back to what our ancestors took as their right.

BREAKING THE LEGACY OF ROME

What did the Romans ever do for us? Besides committing cultural and spiritual genocide, destroying our links to five thousand years or more of spiritual evolution and annihilating our tribal roots – not a lot that we’d want to keep.

THE OLD GODS &THE NEW

In Britannia, Aulus Plautius (David Morrissey) knows that to defeat the tribes of Britannia, you need to kill their gods. But who were the old gods of our tribal past? Are they still here?  And if so, how best can we re-connect with them, to rediscover our heritage and our sense of connectedness to the earth.

BOUDICA

NEW YORK TIMES

“A masterpiece of historical fiction…”

THE ADVERTISER, AUSTRALIA

“All historical novels should be this good”

PUBLISHING NEWS

“The new Mary Renault”

JEAN M AUEL

“A powerful novel, alive with the love, deceit, wisdom and heroics of humanity”

SAINSBURY’S MAGAZINE

“It is so well written that its world of prescient dreamers and fearless warriors lingers in the imagination long after the final page”

INTO THE FIRE

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING…

For six centuries, we’ve been told that Joan of Arc was a pious – and necessarily clueless – peasant virgin used as a standard bearer while the men got on with the messy act of winning the war against the English.

The truth is so much more interesting, but in the past and in the present day, there are people who will kill to keep the myth alive.

In this fast-paced, gritty thriller, past and present weave inexorably towards an incendiary – and unexpected – conclusion. Read more.

THE ART OF WAR

Fourth  – and last – in The Emperor’s Spy series. In his deadliest assignment yet, Sebastos Pantera, the spy whose name means leopard, is assigned to keep safe an upstart general who has pretensions to take the Imperial throne.
 

MORE FROM MANDA

#AMTHINKING

Random thoughts from the keyboard: what are we here for? Who’s going to win the next election – and does it matter? Can we stitch together the neurophysiology of consciousness with sustainable economics?

#AMTALKING

Once in a while, I get to sit in front of a microphone… either alone or in company, reading a short story, or having a conversation.  Here’s a selection of things that have happened recently, with more to follow in due course.

#AMWRITING

Why do we write? More importantly, how do we write?  Observations from the coalface on the process of writing as an art, a profession and a way of staying sane (ish).

#AMREADING

For those of us who still read in blocks of longer than 280 characters, a round up of all that’s best in books, journals, commentary and on the web.

 CONTACT MANDA

Writing is an incredibly solitary occupation. It's always good to connect with people who share the same realities. So go on, get in touch...

[email protected]