If things had worked out differently, mystery novelist Richard Osman might have become a spy.
Osman, the British quiz show host and author of bestselling novels including The Thursday Murder Club and The Man Who Died Twice, said in an interview with the Guardian that while he was a student at Cambridge University, he was given the “tap on the shoulder” by the Secret Intelligence Service—the British spy agency better known as MI6.
The agency gave Osman a series of tests; apparently, he didn’t acquit himself quite well enough, although he allowed it was a “fun” experience.
The 6’7” author admitted he probably wouldn’t have been a success at MI6. “Honestly, I would have been terrible. I’m too tall, not bright enough, and if I have a secret, I tell everybody. You could not find a worse spy. I cannot tell a lie.”
Osman’s latest novel, The Last Devil to Die, is scheduled for publication in the U.S. next week by Pamela Dorman. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “Osman serves up another delightful mystery even if he's not at the top of his game.”
Osman isn’t the only British author to recently come clean with an admission that he isn’t fit for a career in espionage. In a profile, also in the Guardian, thriller novelist Mick Herron, who writes spy novels, revealed his own limitations.
“I’d have made an awful spy,” Herron said. “I’m lacking in practical abilities. These days, most spying is done from a technological perspective—which I’d be no good at. I don’t have a smartphone. I don’t have Wi-Fi.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
