Something completely different to the usual fare this time: a little while back I picked my five favourite spy novels for the Spybrary podcast. For a variation from the usual Never Mind The Podcasts fare, take a listen to what I picked, and why those in politics so often like spy stories:

Anthony Price features, of course. As does (ssssh! former spy) Paddy Ashdown and US President Lyndon B Johnson, subject of perhaps the best non-fiction book and one with a brilliant narrator too.

In coincidental related news, I discovered recently that the author of the standard book on the history of the early years of campaigning for proportional representation was a Communist, and possibly a Russian spy. The author is Jennifer Hart and the book is Proportional Representation: Critics of the British Electoral System 1820-1945.

• The Spybrary Podcast.

• Share the show’s website, www.NeverMindTheBarCharts.com.