12 Absolutely Wild MI6 Facts That Are Making Me Wonder If I’ve Been Living Under A Rock This Whole Time

Before Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy became a classic Cold War thriller, its author, John le Carré was living the spy life for real. Born David Cornwell, he worked for MI6 but had to use a pen name—real agents weren’t allowed to publish under their own identities. And le Carré wasn’t alone. The Quiet American author Graham Greene was also with MI6. Meanwhile, Ian Fleming—the man behind James Bond—served in Naval Intelligence, which gave him all the material he needed to invent 007 (minus the gadgets and martinis, probably).