Mick Herron

Michael Herron (born 11 July 1963) is a British mystery and thriller novelist. He is the author of the Slough House series, which has been adapted into the Slow Horses television series. He won the Crime Writers' Association 2013 Gold Dagger for Dead Lions and the Diamond Dagger in 2025 for lifetime achievement.

Early life

Herron was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he earned a degree in English. He is one of six children; his father was an optician and his mother a nursery-school teacher.

Career

Herron was a subeditor at IDS Employment Law Brief (Incomes Data Services), a trade journal on U.K. employment law.

Herron commuted from Oxford to London daily, returned home around 6 p.m., and wrote for an hour. In 2002, Herron had an office on a floor with few people, eventually hot-desking on a floor with hundreds of people. Herron resigned from IDS Employment Law Brief in 2017.

In 2003, Herron published his first novel, Down Cemetery Road. It was the first volume in a four-book series about Zoë Boehm, an Oxford private detective.

After the 7 July 2005 London bombings, as a London-Oxford commuter, he wanted to write about the UK security services.

In 2010, he began the Slough House spy series with the first volume, Slow Horses. The series concerns MI5 agents who have been exiled from the agency mainstream for various failures. The second volume, Dead Lions, published in 2013, won the Crime Writers' Association 2013 Gold Dagger. Herron has stated that the lead character, Jackson Lamb, was influenced by Reginald Hill's Andy Dalziel. As of September 2025, the series includes nine novels, plus several associated novellas. Early volumes have been adapted for television as Slow Horses.

Slow Horses was published by Constable in 2010, but the firm declined the opportunity to publish the next book in the series in the United Kingdom due to disappointing sales. Soho Press published the Slough House novels in the United States, and John Murray started republishing the series in the UK from 2015.

Herron's short stories have been regularly published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and some are collected in the book All the Livelong Day, published in 2013.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2024.

Adaptations

The Slough House series has been adapted for television under the name Slow Horses, starring Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, with the first six-part season, based on the book Slow Horses, streamed on Apple TV+ from 1 April 2022. The second season, based on Dead Lions, was filmed back-to-back with the first and premiered on 2 December 2022. It was announced in June 2022 that further seasons, adapting Real Tigers and Spook Street, had been greenlit. Season 3, based on Real Tigers, premiered on Apple TV+ on 29 November 2023. Season 5, based on London Rules, premiered on Apple TV+ on 24 September 2025. Season 6, based on both Joe Country and Slough House, premiered on Apple TV on September 16, 2026.

An Apple TV+ adaptation of Down Cemetery Road starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson was released in October 2025. The second season was announced by Apple TV on 12 December 2025.

Personal life

Herron lives in Oxford, England. His partner is Jo Howard, a recruiter in the publishing industry and leadership development consultant.