Adam Sisman is an award-winning writer, editor, historian and consultant, specializing in biography.

His latest work The Secret Life of John le Carré (October 2023) is a coda to his much-praised biography, published in 2015.

In addition to his definitive life of le Carré, Adam has produced full-length biographies of the historians A.J.P. Taylor and Hugh Trevor-Roper: in each case the first books on their subjects, based on extensive archival research. He has also written a study of literary collaboration, The Friendship: Wordsworth and Coleridge; and the story of the first and arguably the greatest of all biographies, Boswell’s Presumptuous Task. His last book before The Secret Life of John le Carré was about a con man, The Professor and the Parson. Adam’s books have often been shortlisted for prizes, and Boswell’s Presumptuous Task was awarded the US National Books Critics Circle prize for biography.

Besides these, Adam has edited two volumes of letters of Patrick Leigh Fermor, and co-edited a volume of letters of Hugh Trevor-Roper.

The Secret Life of John le Carré

Published in the U K by Profile & in the USA by HarperCollins

A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR

A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR

A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR

‘Sisman is the biographer’s biographer’ Church Times

‘Not merely the conclusive homage to a compulsively fascinating character, but an insightful study into the biographical process itself’ Nicholas Shakespeare

 ‘A completely fascinating and revelatory book, written with great sagacity, candour and judiciousness’  William Boyd

‘Scrupulous…psychologically astute’  The Times

‘A fascinating examination of the biographer's art’  Washington Post

‘Revealing ... shocking’  Observer

‘Enlightening’ Wall Street Journal

‘Intriguing’  Spectator

‘Sisman here is, as always, readable, honest, careful’  Arts Desk

‘Scintillating’  Oldie

‘Fascinating’ New Statesman

‘Future accounts will have to wrestle with the bombshells dropped here’ Publishers Weekly