HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Joseph Marlow Hone (25 February 1937 – 15 August 2016) was a British writer of the
spy novel Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intellig ...
. His most famous novels featured a British spy called Peter Marlow. The first of the series was ''The Private Sector'' (1971), set in the
Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...
. Marlow's story continues in ''The Sixth Directorate'' (1975), ''The Flowers of the Forest'' (a.k.a. ''The Oxford Gambit'') (1980), and ''The Valley of the Fox'' (1982). During his heyday, in the 1970s, Hone was favourably compared with writers such as
Len Deighton Leonard Cyril Deighton ( ; born 18 February 1929) is a British author. His publications have included cookery books and works on history, but he is best known for his spy novels. After completing his national service in the Royal Air Force, D ...
,
Eric Ambler Eric Clifford Ambler OBE (28 June 1909 – 23 October 1998) was an English author of thrillers, in particular spy novels, who introduced a new realism to the genre. Also working as a screenwriter, Ambler used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for books ...
and
John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. A "sophist ...
.


Early life and education

Hone was born in London in 1937, son of Nathaniel Marlow Hone (1917-1959), of South Hill,
Killiney Killiney () is an affluent coastal suburb on the southside of Dublin, Ireland. It lies south of Dalkey, east and northeast of Ballybrack and Sallynoggin and north of Shankill, in the local government area of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown within ...
,
County Dublin County Dublin ( or ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and holds its capital city, Dublin. It is located on the island's east coast, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Until 1994, County Dubli ...
, Ireland, and Morley House,
Chippenham Chippenham is a market town in north-west Wiltshire, England. It lies north-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath, west of London and is near the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town was established on a crossing of the River Avon, ...
,
Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...
, and Bridget, daughter of Michael Anthony, of Diltown, County Kilkenny. The
Hone family Honing is a kind of metalworking. Hone may also refer to: * Hone (name) (incl. Hōne), a list of people with the surname, given name or nickname * Hõne language, spoken in Gombe State and Taraba State, Nigeria * Hône Hône (; Valdôtain: (lo ...
were Irish landed gentry;Burke's Irish Family Records, ed. Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1976, p. 602 his grandfather, Joseph Hone, was biographer to George Moore and
W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...
. Hone recounts having been "given away" by his parents and taken to Dublin in his autobiography ''Wicked Little Joe'' (2009). He was educated at
Kilkenny College Kilkenny College is a Church of Ireland co-educational day and boarding secondary school located in Kilkenny, in the South-East of Ireland. It is the largest co-educational boarding school in Ireland. In 2013 it transferred to the state/public se ...
and
St. Columba's College, Dublin St Columba's College is a co-educational independent day and boarding school founded in 1843 located in Whitechurch, County Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Among the founders of the college were Edwin Wyndham-Quin, 3rd Earl of Dunraven an ...
.


Career

Hone had a varied career, including working as an assistant in a second-hand bookshop in London, as a teacher at Drogheda Grammar School in Ireland, and with the Egyptian Ministry of Education in Cairo, Heliopolis and Suez. He also worked for a publishing firm, and in radio and television. In 1960 he became co-founder of Envoy Productions, Dublin, and co-produced a number of plays and musicals at the Theatre Royal, Stratford, East London. He was appointed Radio and Television Officer with the United Nations Secretariat in New York in 1968 and for the next two years he travelled to Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, India, Pakistan and the Far East, producing documentary programmes based on these travels. ''The Dancing Waiters'' (1975) was also based on these experiences. He produced a number of radio programmes for U.N. radio, later broadcast by the BBC. Hone held various positions in radio and television, including radio and then television critic for ''The Listener'' (1971–1980), and an overseas posting with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). He died on 15 August 2016.


Novels

In his first novel, ''The Private Sector'' (1971), Marlow, a teacher in Cairo, finds himself becoming a spy for the British. This was based in part on Hone's experiences in 1957–58 as a teacher in Europe. He stated that he had not been associated with Intelligence work but that he had 'worked with and met such people, especially while I was a teacher in Egypt and in New York with the UN.' Hone's second book, ''The Sixth Directorate'' (1975), continues Marlow's story after his release from Durham jail, where he has been sent on a frame-up by his own department; it deals with his impersonation of an Englishman, a captured KGB agent living in London, his subsequent adventures as a fall-guy agent in the UN in New York, and his eventual encounter with the KGB in Cheltenham. Hone's last novel was ''Goodbye Again''. Hone's books, including his last novel, have been translated into various languages, including French. Hone reviewed books for the ''New York Times Book Review'', ''The Spectator'', ''The New Statesman'', and the ''Daily Telegraph''. Since 2000, Hone had been teaching creative writing and a course which looked at the history and culture of various countries, including India and China. He taught at Wroxton College in Oxfordshire, part of Fairleigh Dickinson University based in New Jersey, USA.


Personal life

In 1964, Hone married Jacqueline, daughter of J. M. Yeend, of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. The Hones had two children. Hone's brother, Camillus, was adopted by the writer
Pamela Travers Pamela Lyndon Travers ( ; born Helen Lyndon Goff; 9 August 1899 – 23 April 1996) was an Australian-born British writer who spent most of her career in England. She is best known for the Mary Poppins (book series), ''Mary Poppins'' series of ...
, the creator of ''Mary Poppins''.


Bibliography


Novels

* ''The Private Sector''
971 Year 971 ( CMLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Battle of Dorostolon: A Byzantine expeditionary army (possibly 30–40,000 men) attacks the Bulgarian frontier, perso ...
* ''The Sixth Directorate''
975 Year 975 ( CMLXXV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: Emperor John I raids Mesopotamia and invades Syria, using the Byzantine base at Antioch to pres ...
* ''The Paris Trap''
977 Year 977 ( CMLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * May – Boris II, dethroned emperor (''tsar'') of Bulgaria, and his brother Roman manage to escape from captivity in Const ...
* ''The Flowers of the Forest''
980 Year 980 ( CMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Peace is concluded between Emperor Otto II (the Red) and King Lothair III (or Lothair IV) at Margut, ending the Franco-Germa ...
, published in the U.S. as ''The Oxford Gambit'' * ''The Valley of the Fox''
982 Year 982 ( CMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – Emperor Otto II (the Red) assembles an imperial expeditionary force at Taranto, and proceeds along the gulf coas ...
* ''Summer Hill''
990 Year 990 ( CMXC) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Al-Mansur, Chancellor and effective ruler of Al-Andalus, conquers the Castle of Montemor-o-Velho (modern Portugal), expanding t ...
* ''Return to Summer Hill''
990 Year 990 ( CMXC) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Al-Mansur, Chancellor and effective ruler of Al-Andalus, conquers the Castle of Montemor-o-Velho (modern Portugal), expanding t ...
* ''Firesong''
997 Year 997 ( CMXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * 1 February: Empress Teishi gives birth to Princess Shushi - she is the first child of the emperor, but because of the power stru ...
* ''Goodbye Again'' 011


Non-fiction

* ''The Dancing Waiters''
975 Year 975 ( CMLXXV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: Emperor John I raids Mesopotamia and invades Syria, using the Byzantine base at Antioch to pres ...
* ''Gone Tomorrow''
981 Year 981 ( CMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – Emperor Otto II (the Red) leads the imperial court to Rome, making the city his imperial capital, and receiv ...
* ''Children of the Country: Coast to Coast Across Africa''
986 Year 986 ( CMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * August 17 – Battle of the Gates of Trajan: Emperor Basil II leads a Byzantine expeditionary force (30,000 me ...
* ''Duck Soup in the Black Sea''
988 Year 988 ( CMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Fall – Emperor Basil II, supported by a contingent of 6,000 Varangians (the future Varangian Guard), organiz ...
* ''Wicked Little Joe''
009 009 may refer to: * OO9, gauge model railways * O09, FAA identifier for Round Valley Airport * 0O9, FAA identifier for Ward Field, see List of airports in California * British secret agent 009, see 00 Agent * BA 009, see British Airways Flight ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hone, Joseph Spy fiction writers
Joseph Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...
Irish writers Irish people of Dutch descent 1937 births 2016 deaths