James Hanning

James Hanning is a former deputy editor of the Independent on Sunday. His first book, co-authored with Francis Elliott of The Times, was a biography of David Cameron, which ran to three editions and is widely regarded as the definitive book on Cameron. Building on a longstanding interest in the phone hacking scandal, in 2014 his book The News Machine, written with exclusive access to the News of the World's chief investigator Glenn Mulcaire, lifted the lid on the unlawful climate on that newspaper in the early 2000s. One admirer described it as reading 'like a thriller'. His latest book, on Soviet mole Kim Philby's time in Beirut, sheds remarkable new light on the spy's domestic life, and exclusively reveals new evidence from the late art historian Brian Sewell and others about the events that brought about the shocking denouement of his story. James lives in West London.