British writer Mick Herron, best known for his Slough House series beginning with Slow Horses, has been awarded the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Diamond Dagger award for lifetime contribution to crime writing.

“To receive this accolade from these friends and colleagues is a career highlight and a personal joy,” said Herron. “I’m touched and thrilled beyond measure, and will try to live up to the honour.”

Born in Newcastle, Herron studied English at Oxford, where he still lives. He began writing fiction while working as a sub-editor in London, finding the time to write about 350 words a day. His first novel, Down Cemetery Road, was published in 2003 and is the first of four books in his Zoë Boehm series. It will be adapted for television by Apple TV+ starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson.

In 2010, he published Slow Horses, which follows a group of disgraced MI5 agents. Further Slough House novels include Dead Lions, Real Tigers and Spook Street, with the most recent being Bad Actors, published in 2022. The same year, the first series of the television adaptation of Slow Horses premiered on Apple TV+, starring Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb. Three further seasons have since been released, with two more in the works.

Two books in the Slough House series have previously been recognised by the CWA: Dead Lions won the Gold Dagger in 2013, while Spook Street won the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger in 2017. Herron has also published several standalone novels, including Reconstruction, Nobody Walks and, most recently, The Secret Hours.

“I am delighted that the Diamond Dagger judges have picked Mick as their recipient this year,” said CWA chair Vaseem Khan. “Few could be more deserving. Mick is the quintessential writers’ writer and his Slough House novels have, by general consensus, reinvented the spy thriller, going on to delight millions on the page and on screen. The Diamond Dagger is a fitting tribute to a writer whose work has become cultural marker and record of our time.”

CWA members make nominations for the Diamond Dagger, which are then narrowed down to a shortlist by industry experts before being voted on by a panel of past winners.

Past recipients include John le Carré, Ruth Rendell, Val McDermid, Ian Rankin and PD James. Last year, Lynda La Plante and James Lee Burke shared the award.