Jackson Lamb is not a spy. He’s a chief sub-editor
I’ve been rewatching the brilliant Slow Horses on Apple TV, starting with Series 1 and working through them all to refresh my memory before tackling the new Series 4, and I’ve realised why this sumptuous feast feels so real – and so familiar to me. Jackson Lamb, played impeccably by Gary Oldman (below), the boss of the Slow Horses – spies based at Slough House, a fictional out-station for disgraced MI5 officers – is, in fact, not a spy at all but a disguised chief sub-editor of a large news organisation. And the Slow Horses are disgruntled sub-editors, who envy and, in secret, desperately want to join the ranks of the so-called “real” journalists (ie, the ones who report the news) in this news/intelligence organisation.
I’ve known several chief subs who were just like Jackson Lamb, very scruffy, appallingly rude, disgusting in their habits, devastating in their criticism, and also stunningly brilliant in their own field – headline writing, spotting errors, exposing the weakness in a story, and fixing copy disasters. Hell, I’ve been a chief-sub myself. In total I spent about ten years of my journalistic career as a sub-editor, in newsrooms similar to the one below, and I know this world well. And Mick Herron, the writer of the Slough House books on which the TV show is based – which, don’t get me wrong, are utterly superb – was also a hard-bitten sub for “a legal journal”, according to The Guardian, but I’ve also heard he worked for Reuters.
It is possible that I am doing something psychologists call transference here. But my own experience of working as a sub-editor – and the knowledge that Herron (below) was a fellow “horny handed sub of toil” – gives me the confidence to make these claims. I was often very unhappy as a newspaper sub, and suffered simultaneously from a superiority/inferiority complex and imposter syndrome. I always felt that others in the news organisations in which I worked (The Times, the FT, the Sunday Telegraph) were doing real journalism, ie, writing stories, while I was basically a glorified spell-checker. But I also believed that I was better than them. They couldn’t spell, they didn’t understand grammar, were ignorant of many basic facts about the world. (OK, not all of them, I must admit, but many more than you would imagine.)
The Slow Horses, I think, feel the same way. These diverse fictional folk tend to be odder than the common run of humanity, as are sub-editors, in my experience. But subs, like the Slow Horses, are often nerdily brilliant, indeed just as talented as real journalists (or spies). The Slow Horses have been expelled from The Park, the epicentre of British intelligence, for various misfortunes and mistakes. On the subs benches you often find people who have had other more successful careers before washing up there.
The guy who played Herr Flick in ‘Allo ‘Allo, later did subbing shifts on The Times. Bill Bryson was a business sub for many years before literary fame claimed him, also on that paper. Graham Greene is famous for marching into the same offices in the 1930s and proclaiming, “I am the new sub-editor, kindly show me to my office.” The future author (and wartime spy!) was nearly laughed out of the building. (Below is an image of Daily Mail subs at work during WWII.) I was, myself, a foreign correspondent in India for the FT and even briefly a war correspondent in Afghanistan, before taking a full-time job as a sub-editor on a female-targeted Saturday section of The Times, where I worked (mostly gruntled) for six years before managing to finally launch my career as a historical novelist.
I think what I am trying to say is that I feel a kinship to Mick Herron. We’ve both been through the sub-editing mill, and come out the other side as authors. A kinship, but also a huge, frothing, tongue-chewing jealousy, since his Slow Horses books are infinitely better and more successful than mine. Having said that if you would like to read my latest Viking novel King of the North (Fire Born 4), you can buy a copy here. Blood of the Bear (Fire Born 5) will be out next month in paperback and as an ebook and audio file. And, if you don’t like Vikings, how about King Arthur? The Broken Kingdom is available here for £1.99.
And if you work for Apple TV, or Netflix, or anyone else in telly-land, don’t be shy about giving me a call.
Interesting glimpse into the dark arts of a sub editor!
I love Mick Herron’s books, but he was no instant success, took some time and the right publisher to recognise his talents and to market them properly!
The books are great! But the TV show is almost as good.