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Identity of Argylle author Elly Conway revealed to be two people
The identity of the mysterious spy novelist Elly Conway has been unmasked by the Telegraph as two people: Terry Hayes, the Australian novelist and screenwriter best known for I Am Pilgrim (Bantam), and Tammy Cohen, the British author of psychological thrillers including When She Was Bad and They All Fall Down (both Black Swan).
In 2021 filmmaker Matthew Vaughn said his spy movie, "Argylle", was inspired by an unpublished thriller by Conway. But no other details were revealed about Conway’s identity, as the author’s official Instagram page did not post anything and only followed her agent, Eric Reid. On the Penguin website, the biography simply said: “She lives in the United States and is currently working on the next instalment in the series.” Vaughn himself, J K Rowling and even Taylor Swift were among those rumoured to be the ‘real’ Conway.
The Telegraph reported that Vaughn asked Hayes to write an accompanying novel to the "Argylle" film. It was not to be a the book of the film, but a book that the film’s heroine might have written, one of her spy thrillers featuring the CIA agent Aubrey Argylle.
Hayes put the idea to his publisher, Bill Scott-Kerr, of Transworld, who thought it was a great idea. However, Hayes was still working on The Year of the Locust, so Scott-Kerr suggested he take on a co-author for Argylle, Cohen.
The film was released on Friday (2nd February) starring Bryce Dallas Howard as the spy novelist Elly Conway "who is drawn into the real world of espionage when the plots of her books get a little too close to the activities of a sinister underground syndicate". Henry Cavill and Dua Lipa also star.
