Spies come in from Cold War

Former diplomat Sam Guthrie is determined to shift the focus of espionage fiction from Europe to Asia.

Sam Guthrie is a former diplomat, turned writer. His debut novel, The Peak, is set in Hong Kong, and it's a spy/espionage thriller. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian

As readers, we are used to spy thrillers being set during the Cold War. Think, Russians in Gorky Park, or Britain’s slow horses. But it doesn’t have to be that way: there is a rather more modern world of international intrigue just waiting to be explored, and it’s into this arena former Australian diplomat, now writer, Sam Guthrie has stepped.

“It’s been Cold War and more Cold War,” he says. “But we are right on the doorstep of something just as interesting: China, the US and Australia.

“That is the perfect backdrop, if you want to write about espionage.”

Before we get to the book, we should note that it’s rare to find former diplomats, such as Guthrie, moving into the world of fiction, at least in Australia. Among other things, he’s probably had to take a sizeable reduction in income (although maybe not forever, since film companies are already circling his first book).

Guthrie says writing had long been part of his ambition, “but it was a matter of getting myself into a position where I could afford to do it. My son is now 17. I no longer work for the Australian government. I don’t live in China anymore. So it was time”.

The Peak (out this month with HarperCollins) is named for verdant Hong Kong, a city he’s lived in, and loved, and if the book feels very little like a debut, that’s because the diplomatic dance between China and Australia is one Guthrie knows well.

 

He was previously a deputy consul-general and senior trade and investment commissioner at the Australian consulate in Hong Kong and Macau; he’s also served as first assistant secretary at Austrade, and he now works as an adviser assisting corporations as they navigate commercial opportunities between the two nations.

His book reflects that level of experience and sophistication, which in turn explains why The Peak is poised to be the standout political thriller of 2025.

The story is about the friendship between two Australians who meet at school in Sydney before making their way to Canberra, and foreign ports. Their relationship is seemingly as close as brothers, but for the dark secret at its heart.

It’s also about their shared love of one beguiling Chinese woman; and it’s about betrayal, all set against the backdrop of China’s geopolitical ascent.

The Peak is already drawing comparisons to the works of Robert Harris and Guthrie’s own writing hero, John le Carré. Former MI6 director for operations and intelligence, Nigel Inkster says it “rewrites the script for spy fiction in the 21st century”.

Guthrie was raised in Sydney and, by way of parental sacrifice, attended the prestigious Kings School in Parramatta. From there, he went to the University of Sydney and studied arts and communications. He also has a masters in international relations, but “rather than going into government, or the mining industry, after all that study, I ended up in the wool industry”.

“When all other agriculture was focused on the US, for Australian wool it was all about China,” he says.

He moved to Shanghai in the early 2000s with his wife. As a couple, they thrived. “We lived in a lane house in the French Concession, across the road from the former residence of Sun Yat-sen. Plane trees lined the road and old people sang songs and danced in Fuxing Park next door. It was beautiful.”

Their son was born in Shanghai, where they lived until he was three. After a short stint back in Australia, the family moved to Hong Kong, where Guthrie took a role with Austrade, and his son went to school.

The natural beauty of Hong Kong captivated Guthrie.

“I knew the city in terms of, you know, boardrooms and bars,” he reflects. “It’s only when you live there that you realise it’s got some of those spectacular hikes, and when you’re up in the wilderness, looking out across the water, it’s absolutely stunning.”

Guthrie knew for years that he would one day write about the “sense of opportunity … the smell of money, the smell of excitement that I found there. Even after the handover, I don’t think you could rinse that out of Hong Kong no matter how hard you tried to do it, and it lends itself to intrigue”.

Sam Guthrie knew he’d have to stop working for the Australian government before he published the kind of espionage thriller he wanted to write. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian

He also knew he’d have to stop working for the Australian government before he published the kind of espionage thriller he wanted to write, “because of all the sensitivities” … and over his years in the region, Guthrie certainly had his fair share of managing those “sensitivities”.

“I’ve been on delegations where, you know, one of the delegates showed me into their (hotel) bathroom and we could see the camera behind the bathroom mirror. I’ve had people call me (as a crisis manager) to say, ‘I’ve got a problem. I brought somebody home last night, and they won’t leave my hotel room’.

“Or, ‘I agreed to take this position in academia and now I’m being asked to do other things and I don’t feel comfortable’, or ‘I’ve taken a political donation and it’s made me uneasy’.

“People worry about spying but it’s not really spying that gets people into trouble. It’s finding yourself in a position where you can be compromised, threatened, or blackmailed.”

Did he ever feel frightened, for himself or clients?

“I’ve been concerned,” he says, carefully. “Although what’s really interesting is that business people, as opposed to people in government, are always far more likely to find themselves compromised, and it’s because they are not diplomats, and they do not have the training and they don’t see the red flags.

“They have access to commercial information that may be valuable, and … well, let’s just say they can end up having very interesting experiences, working in that part of the world, and I think I got a bit more of an insight into that world, because I wasn’t always a diplomat.

“As a trade envoy, I was a bit of an outsider a lot of the time, and I think I saw quite a bit more than I would have seen if I had been cocooned in diplomatic life.”

Guthrie says the relationship between Australia and China is “tricky, but it’s like any relationship worth having. It’s complex. It has challenges, but also enormous opportunities, and getting the balance right between those two things can be a struggle”.

“The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has said something like: we co-operate where we can, and disagree where we must, and we always engage in the national interest, and I think that’s about as good an approach as we’ve got,” he says.

“Because differences aside, there is a lot that binds us. China remains our closest trading partner. There’s a massive, and important, Chinese community in Australia. We want harmony. We want a win-win relationship, but we need to be sort of realistic about things, too.

“And when I decided to write a novel, I wanted to write about that, something immediate and important to Australian life, and there’s nothing more relevant. The key struggle of the 21st century will be in the Asia-Pacific. It will be between China and the US, with Australia right in the middle of that. And having lived and worked there, I hoped to bring some insight.”

Guthrie set The Peak to a ’90s soundtrack, which makes it more fun than your average spy thriller, and there is plenty of sexual tension and longing, too, in particular for the girl called Chloe.

Is it possible that she stands in for China?

“Maybe she stands in for what the struggle is about,” Guthrie says. “The struggle between the US and China, the demand for complete loyalty where there may be none.”

And the protagonist, Charlie, could he be a metaphor for Australia’s position in global affairs? “Maybe. I mean, he comes across as innocent, but it’s not always a blind innocence,” Guthrie says. “Sometimes, it’s wilful blindness.”

Now The Peak is about to be published, Guthrie is of course thinking about what comes next: a second novel, perhaps?

“This is actually my second novel,” he says.

“I wrote something before this, and I gave it to (Sydney-based literary agent) Tom Gilliatt, who said, ‘no, I don’t want this novel, but I do like the way you write, so go away and write another one’.”

How did that feel?

“It was deflating for a moment,” he laughs, “but the silver lining was that someone of Tom Gilliatt’s stature thought I had a novel in me, so I worked very quickly after that.”

And how prepared does he feel for the culture shock that will inevitably come, as he shifts from the polished world of diplomacy to the draughty halls with plastic chairs that is the world of Australian letters?

“I actually couldn’t be happier,” he says. “I’m sure there will be events where there will be half a dozen people, and none of them will be there to see me, and that’s fine, I’m just starting out.

“What I’m finding really encouraging is how welcoming and generous everyone has been.”

That includes publishers in Australia and the UK, who snapped up the book; and filmmakers in Hollywood, who see potential for The Peak.

Guthrie’s portrayal of the Hong Kong handover would make an excellent opening scene, capturing as he does the excitement on the ground, and the world’s trepidation, as China reclaimed its territory. “There was ambiguity and uncertainty,” he says. “And, there still is. And that is why it’s fascinating.”

The Peak by Sam Guthrie (HarperCollins) is out now.