Building a Secret Agent

The Improbable Prowess of James Bond

What does it take to create a secret agent?

In a reader’s fantasy, including my own, an agent is a master of manipulation and disguise. Perhaps they’re a good pickpocket. They glide stealthily past security cameras to exit down a back stairwell into an alleyway. They’d emerge nonchalantly onto a busy street and no passerby was the wiser as to their hi-jinx. Mission accomplished.

Bond is different variety of secret agent. As a member of the 00 section of the British Secret…