Mick Herron

Mick Herron

Mick Herron is a British mystery and thriller novelist. He is the author of the Slough House series, early novels of which have been adapted into the Slow Horses television series. He won the Crime Writers' Association 2013 Gold Dagger for Dead Lions and the Diamond Dagger in 2025 for lifetime achievement.

Early life

Mick Herron

Herron was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he earned a degree in English. He is one of six children; his father was an optician and his mother a nursery-school teacher.

Career

Mick Herron

Herron was a subeditor at IDS Employment Law Brief (Incomes Data Services), a trade journal on U.K. employment law, "I wrote about people who were having a bad time at work".

Herron commuted from Oxford to London daily, returned home around 6 p.m., and wrote for an hour. In 2002, Herron had an office on a floor with few people, eventually hot-desking on a floor with hundreds of people. Herron resigned from IDS Employment Law Brief in 2017.

"The larger the organization was that I worked for, the less concern it had for the people working for it." - Mick Herron

In 2003, Herron published his first novel, Down Cemetery Road. It was the first volume in a four-book series about Zoë Boehm, an Oxford private detective.

"I wanted to write about a bunch of people who were forced to work together who were thwarted by life and having a terrible time with their careers" - Mick Herron

After the 7 July 2005 London bombings, as a London-Oxford commuter, he wanted to write about the UK security services.

In 2010, he began the Slough House spy series with the first volume Slow Horses. The series concerns MI5 agents who have been exiled from the agency mainstream for various failures. The second volume, Dead Lions, published in 2013, won the Crime Writers' Association 2013 Gold Dagger. Herron has stated that the lead character, Jackson Lamb, was influenced by Reginald Hill's Andy Dalziel. As of December 2022, the series includes eight novels, plus several associated novellas, and events in related novels. Early volumes have also been adapted for television as Slow Horses.

Slow Horses was published by Constable in 2010, but the firm declined the opportunity to publish the next book in the series in the United Kingdom due to disappointing sales of its predecessor. Soho Press published the Slough House novels in the United States, and John Murray started republishing the series in the UK from 2015.

Herron's short stories have been regularly published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and some are collected in the book All the Livelong Day, published in 2013.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2024.

Adaptations

Mick Herron

The Slough House series has been adapted for television under the name Slow Horses, starring Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, with the first six-part season, based on the book Slow Horses, streamed on Apple TV+ from 1 April 2022. The second season, based on Dead Lions, was filmed back-to-back with the first and premiered on 2 December 2022. It was announced in June 2022 that further seasons, adapting Real Tigers and Spook Street, had been greenlit. Season 3, based on Real Tigers, premiered on Apple TV+ 29 November 2023. Season 5, based on London Rules, premiered on Apple TV+ on 24 September 2025.

An Apple TV+ adaptation of Down Cemetery Road starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson was released in October 2025. The second season was announced by Apple TV on December 12, 2025.

Awards

Mick Herron

Herron won the 2025 CWA Diamond Dagger in 2025.

• "Dolphin Junction" • Joint winner, Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award 2009 • Slow Horses • Longlisted for CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2010 • Winner, USC Libraries Scripter Award 2023 • Dead Lions • Shortlisted for Barry Award 2014, for best thriller • Shortlisted for Macavity Prize for best novel, 2014 • Winner, CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel 2013 • Winner, Palle Rosenkrantz Award 2020 (Det Danske Kriminalakademi) • Nobody Walks • Shortlisted for CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2015 • Real Tigers • Shortlisted for CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2016 • Shortlisted for CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel 2016 • Winner, Last Laugh Award, CrimeFest 2017 • Winner, USC Libraries Scripter Award 2024 • Shortlisted, Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2017 • Spook Street • Shortlisted for CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel 2017 • Winner, CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2017, Spook Street • Shortlisted, British Book Awards, Crime and Thriller Book of the Year 2018 • Shortlisted for Barry Award 2018, for best thriller • Shortlisted, Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2018 • Winner, Last Laugh Award, CrimeFest 2018 • London Rules • Shortlisted for CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel 2018 • Shortlisted for CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2018 • Shortlisted, Last Laugh Award, CrimeFest 2019 • Shortlisted for Barry Award 2019, for best thriller • Shortlisted, Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2019 • Winner, Capital Crime Best Thriller Award 2019 • Joe Country • Shortlisted, Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2020 • Shortlisted for CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel 2020 • Slough House • Winner, Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2022 • Winner, Last Laugh Award, CrimeFest 2022 • Shortlisted for Barry Award 2022, for best thriller • Bad Actors • Longlisted, Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2023 • Shortlisted, Last Laugh Award, CrimeFest 2023 • Shortlisted for Barry Award 2023, for best thriller • The Secret Hours • Winner, Last Laugh Award, CrimeFest 2024 • Shortlisted for Barry Award 2024, for best thriller • Shortlisted, International Thriller Writers award 2024 • Shortlisted British Book Awards Crime & Thriller Book of the Year 2024 • Shortlisted, Fingerprint Awards Book of the Year 2024 • Shortlisted for CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel 2024

Personal life

Mick Herron

Herron lives in Oxford, England. He enjoys playing squash. His partner is Jo Howard, a "headhunter for the publishing industry" and "leadership development consultant", formerly a commercial director at Waterstones Booksellers.