Today, the Telegraph blows the cover of the world’s most enigmatic spy novelist: Elly Conway. The mysterious Conway first entered the public consciousness in July 2021, when the filmmaker Matthew Vaughn announced that an unpublished thriller by Conway would be the inspiration for his next spy movie, Argylle.
Over the following two years, no more information about Conway was forthcoming; she had an official Instagram page, but posted nothing.
Espionage enthusiasts began to exchange guesses about her true identity as fervently as they had once hypothesised about the Fifth Man or Deep Throat; in recent months, speculation had reached fever pitch. Eventually, the trailer for Vaughn’s Argylle was released, bringing with it the revelation that Elly Conway was a character in the film – a spy novelist, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, who gets caught up in real-life espionage. Being fictional has proved no impediment to Conway’s literary career, however. Last month, a novel, also called Argylle, was published under her name, to warm reviews.
So, who actually wrote it? Vaughn himself was an obvious suspect, as was Jane Goldman, co-writer of his Kingsman spy capers; the name of J K Rowling, who has form when it comes to noms de plume, has also been murmured. More bizarrely, social media has been awash with “Swifties” weaving together scraps of circumstantial evidence (noting, for example, that Taylor Swift often works with Conway Recording Studios) to argue that their idol is the book’s true author.
But now, in one of the most startling unmaskings since Mr Big ripped off his prosthetic face in Live and Let Die to reveal that he was really Dr Kananga, we can announce that Elly Conway is, in fact, two people: Terry Hayes, the Australian novelist and screenwriter, best known for his world-conquering 2013 debut I Am Pilgrim; and Tammy Cohen, the British author of psychological thrillers such as When She Was Bad (2016) and They All Fall Down (2017).
Talking to the pair on Zoom, I manfully try to hide my disappointment that it’s not Taylor Swift I’m quizzing. Cohen, 60, admits that she was expecting some level of speculation as to Conway’s identity, but nothing like this: “God, I hope all the people that pre-ordered on the basis that Taylor wrote it aren’t disappointed,” she says.
“I hope they are!” chimes in Hayes, 72. “If that’s why they buy a book, they deserve every punishment they get.”
“Terry!” Cohen groans, immediately establishing the duo’s dynamic of naughty schoolboy and long-suffering mother figure.
How have they coped with keeping their involvement secret for the best part of three years? “The biggest problem for me was not being able to tell my support group of writer friends who I ring up every time I get into a mess,” says Cohen.
“And also trying to account for a large amount of time when I apparently haven’t produced a book.” “That was no problem for me,” chuckles Hayes, who, after taking 10 years to complete his second novel, The Year of the Locust (2023), has earned a reputation for being snail-like.
The novel on which Hayes and Cohen have collaborated had an unusual genesis. In mid-2021, Vaughn, long thwarted in his ambition to make a film of I Am Pilgrim – “The rights were sold to MGM and they could not do a deal with Matthew for their own bizarre reasons,” Hayes tells me – instead approached its author with an idea for another project.
> Cohen, 60, admits that she was expecting some level of speculation as to Conway’s identity, but nothing like this: “God, I hope all the people that pre-ordered on the basis that Taylor wrote it aren’t disappointed,” she says.
> “I hope they are!” chimes in Hayes, 72. “If that’s why they buy a book, they deserve every punishment they get.”
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**From The Telegraph:**
Today, the Telegraph blows the cover of the world’s most enigmatic spy novelist: Elly Conway. The mysterious Conway first entered the public consciousness in July 2021, when the filmmaker Matthew Vaughn announced that an unpublished thriller by Conway would be the inspiration for his next spy movie, Argylle.
Over the following two years, no more information about Conway was forthcoming; she had an official Instagram page, but posted nothing.
Espionage enthusiasts began to exchange guesses about her true identity as fervently as they had once hypothesised about the Fifth Man or Deep Throat; in recent months, speculation had reached fever pitch. Eventually, the trailer for Vaughn’s Argylle was released, bringing with it the revelation that Elly Conway was a character in the film – a spy novelist, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, who gets caught up in real-life espionage. Being fictional has proved no impediment to Conway’s literary career, however. Last month, a novel, also called Argylle, was published under her name, to warm reviews.
So, who actually wrote it? Vaughn himself was an obvious suspect, as was Jane Goldman, co-writer of his Kingsman spy capers; the name of J K Rowling, who has form when it comes to noms de plume, has also been murmured. More bizarrely, social media has been awash with “Swifties” weaving together scraps of circumstantial evidence (noting, for example, that Taylor Swift often works with Conway Recording Studios) to argue that their idol is the book’s true author.
But now, in one of the most startling unmaskings since Mr Big ripped off his prosthetic face in Live and Let Die to reveal that he was really Dr Kananga, we can announce that Elly Conway is, in fact, two people: Terry Hayes, the Australian novelist and screenwriter, best known for his world-conquering 2013 debut I Am Pilgrim; and Tammy Cohen, the British author of psychological thrillers such as When She Was Bad (2016) and They All Fall Down (2017).
Talking to the pair on Zoom, I manfully try to hide my disappointment that it’s not Taylor Swift I’m quizzing. Cohen, 60, admits that she was expecting some level of speculation as to Conway’s identity, but nothing like this: “God, I hope all the people that pre-ordered on the basis that Taylor wrote it aren’t disappointed,” she says.
“I hope they are!” chimes in Hayes, 72. “If that’s why they buy a book, they deserve every punishment they get.”
“Terry!” Cohen groans, immediately establishing the duo’s dynamic of naughty schoolboy and long-suffering mother figure.
How have they coped with keeping their involvement secret for the best part of three years? “The biggest problem for me was not being able to tell my support group of writer friends who I ring up every time I get into a mess,” says Cohen.
“And also trying to account for a large amount of time when I apparently haven’t produced a book.” “That was no problem for me,” chuckles Hayes, who, after taking 10 years to complete his second novel, The Year of the Locust (2023), has earned a reputation for being snail-like.
The novel on which Hayes and Cohen have collaborated had an unusual genesis. In mid-2021, Vaughn, long thwarted in his ambition to make a film of I Am Pilgrim – “The rights were sold to MGM and they could not do a deal with Matthew for their own bizarre reasons,” Hayes tells me – instead approached its author with an idea for another project.
**Read more here:** https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/elly-conway-argylle-real-true-identity-interview/
> Cohen, 60, admits that she was expecting some level of speculation as to Conway’s identity, but nothing like this: “God, I hope all the people that pre-ordered on the basis that Taylor wrote it aren’t disappointed,” she says.
> “I hope they are!” chimes in Hayes, 72. “If that’s why they buy a book, they deserve every punishment they get.”
First [that BTS memoir](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/12/sorry-swifties-bts-revealed-as-authors-of-mystery-book-that-intrigued-the-internet) and now this, huh?