David McCloskey, the bestselling author of The Seventh Floor, Moscow X, Damascus Station and The Persian (published in January 2026), is a former CIA analyst. He leverages his experience from field stations across the Middle East during the Arab Spring and his work in the Counterterrorism Center, where he focused on jihadist activities in Syria and Iraq.

His background gives him rare proximity to the mechanics of intelligence work - the human judgement, the institutional pressure, the moral ambiguity - and an instinct for where geopolitics becomes personal.

Combining insider experience with a storyteller’s pace, David has become a leading voice in international intrigue, bringing the realities of espionage and statecraft into sharp focus.

Gordon Corera has covered national security issues for more than 25 years, including two decades as a security correspondent for BBC News. He is widely respected for deep reporting on terrorism, cyber-security and espionage; translating hidden worlds into public understanding without losing complexity.

He has interviewed spy chiefs from around the world and presented radio and podcast series including Shock and War: Iraq 20 Years On, bringing both narrative clarity and journalistic rigour to subjects that rarely come with clean answers.

Gordon has authored several acclaimed non-fiction books on intelligence, including The Spy In The Archive, MI6: Life & Death In The British Secret Service and Russians Among Us: Sleeper Cells, Ghost Stories and the Hunt for Putin’s Agents.