Career
During the Second World War and for two decades after 1950, Bingham worked for MI5 and was reportedly the inspiration for John le Carre"s character George Smiley. In 1999 le Carré confirmed that Bingham had been an inspiration for Smiley and in 2000 went further, writing in an introduction to a reissue of one of Bingham"s novels that "He had been one of two men who had gone into the making of George Smiley. Nobody who knew John and the work he was doing could have missed the description of Smiley in my first novel".
John LeCarre in a British Broadcasting Corporation Radio "Front Row" interview in 2009 said that Bingham"s successful thriller novels, published when the two men worked together at MI5 in the 1950s, inspired le Carre to write his first two books
Jack King speculation
There had been previously speculation that the spy known as Jack King was John Bingham but the release of files by MI5 in October 2014 clarifies this was not the case, and the spy was in fact Eric Roberts. Although Bingham had been named by some newspapers as the agent running the double cross, and mentioned in the diary of Guy Liddell, MI5’s then head of counter-intelligence, Professor Christopher Andrew, the former official historian of the Security Service, is quoted as saying that he could not comment on "Jack King’s" true identity, as it will never be officially revealed.
Bingham was recruited into MI5 by Maxwell Knight to work in the counter-intelligence and political infiltration based M Section. He had volunteered to serve in the army but a sight defect prevented him from serving in the field
Prior to his service in MI5, Bingham had been the Art Editor of the Sunday Dispatch.
Bingham was the son of Arthur Bingham, 6th Baron Clanmorris and Mowbray Leila Cloete. He fought in the Second World War, with the Royal Engineers and attached to the General Staff. He succeeded to the title of 7th Baron Clanmorris on 24 June 1960.
Bingham"s first novel, My Name is Michael Sibley (1952), was unusual for its time in suggesting that the British police might not always play fair.
The Third Skin (1954) aka Murder is a Witch
The Paton Street Case (1955) aka Inspector Morgan’s Dilemma
Marion (1957) aka Murder Office the Record
television version: Captive Audience episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962)
Murder Plan Six (1958)
Night’s Black Agent (1961)
A Case of Libel (1963)
A Fragment of Fear (1965)
film version: Fragment of Fear (1970)
The Double Agent (1966)
I Love, I Kill (1968) aka Good Old Charlie
Vulture in the Sun (1971)
God’s Defector (1976) aka Ministry of Death
The Marriage Bureau Murders (1977)
Deadly Picnic (1980)
Brock (1981)
Brock and the Defector (1982)
Non Fiction
The Hunting Down of Peter Manuel (1973) (Written in association with Ex-Detective Superintendent William Muncie).