About the author

Michael Cary Anders has been a journalist for most of his adult life, working more than 20 years for the French news agency Agence France-Presse. He was a staff correspondent for several years in East Africa and Germany, when not a news editor in Paris.

At university he studied chemistry, and he has also tried his hand at managing a rock group. Give him a chance and he'll sing you some of his favourite classic rock, blues or country tunes.

'Agency' is his first major work of fiction, though he has also tried his hand at short stories.

London-born and -bred, Michael Anders has since 2002 lived in the South of France. He and his companion, French stage actress Emmanuèle Stochl, have a long history of trade union and political activity.