Matthew Dunn (author)
Matthew Howard Dunn (born 25 November 1968) is a British spy novelist and previously an MI6 intelligence officer. According to his publicists his time in the intelligence services included experience with specialized units of the British SAS and SBS as well as joint operations with MI5, GCHQ, the CIA, and BND. Biography. Education. Dunn read Politics and Economics at the University of East Anglia before taking a PhD in International Relations from the University of Cambridge. Career. Matthew Dunn spent 5 years in the British Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6, as a field operative. His  role required him to recruit and run agents, coordinate and participate in special operations, and to operate in deep-cover roles throughout the world in order to collect secret intelligence to support the West’s ongoing fight against hostile and unpredictable regimes, state-sponsored terrorism, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. His missions required him to travel extensively and typically he operated in highly hostile environments where, if compromised and captured, he would have been executed. Dunn was trained in all aspects of intelligence collection and direct action including agent running and debriefing, deep-cover deployments, small-arms , explosives, military unarmed combat, surveillance, anti-surveillance, counter-surveillance, advanced driving, infiltration and exfiltration techniques, and covert communications. His skills were widely deployed by him in the field. Dunn typically worked alone but he also had significant experience of working with highly-specialized units of the British SAS and SBS as well as joint-operations with MI5, GCHQ, the CIA, and BND. Dunn was security cleared to the very highest level in Britain. Because of the nature of his work in MI6, Dunn is bound by a life-long pledge of secrecy regarding his methods of work, agents, missions and  overall knowledge of the British Intelligence community and its allies. He remains in close contact with MI6 and will never breach its trust in him. Medals are never awarded to modern MI6 officers, but Dunn was the recipient of a very rare personal commendation from the Secretary of State For Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs for work he did on one mission which was deemed so significant that it directly influenced the successful conclusion of a major international incident. During his time in MI6, Dunn conducted approximately seventy missions. All of them were successful.