Co-founder of the Corfu Literary Festival draws on real British intelligence history for a debut American release
A new novel arriving this summer will bring readers to the Ionian Sea, where history, memory, and espionage collide — written by an author with deep roots in the region.
In A Stranger in Corfu, published by Pegasus Crime on August 4, 2026, British author Alex Preston reimagines a real, hidden chapter of British Intelligence Service history, set on Vidos, a small island just across the water from Corfu town. Preston is co-founder of the Corfu Literary Festival and Patron of the Oxford Literary Festival, and has spent years writing about the region’s history and culture — making this, for him, deeply personal territory.
In Preston’s telling, Vidos becomes an unofficial exile for former members of MI6 — some too damaged by their work to return to ordinary life, others carrying secrets too dangerous to bring back into the world. For years the residents make the best of their fate. Old enemies reconcile, estranged lovers find their way back to each other, and days pass in the warm Ionian sun. But when one of their own washes up dead, alliances fracture and suspicion begins to rise.
Early praise has been striking in its consistency. Tom Holland, author of Pax, calls it “John le Carré meets The Durrells” — a comparison that captures both the novel’s espionage tension and its Ionian atmosphere. Natalie Haynes describes it as “beautifully taut, clever, classy,” and historian Peter Frankopan writes that Preston captures “the fractured legacy of British intelligence… with haunting precision.” Charles Cumming calls it “a beautiful, devastating, and multi-layered tour de force which brings Greece vividly to life.”
Preston is the award-winning author of five novels published in Britain, including This Bleeding City, The Revelations, In Love and War, and Winchelsea, as well as the nonfiction work As Kingfishers Catch Fire. He writes regularly for The New York Times, The Economist, and Harper’s Bazaar, and reviews books for The Observer, the Financial Times, and The Spectator.
A Stranger in Corfu will be released in hardcover on August 4, 2026, by Pegasus Crime, priced at $27.95.
Book Details
A Stranger in Corfu | Alex Preston | Pegasus Crime | August 4, 2026 | Hardcover | 304 pp. | $27.95 | ISBN 9798897101603