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The Secret Agent worked for one of London’s top international real estate agencies for four years before setting up his own property-finding consultancy in 2004. He works with the rich and famous, sourcing high-end homes across London and sometimes the world. He previously worked in the film industry, between New York and Los Angeles, and has also lived in Paris, Buenos Aires, Venice and Nepal. He has a degree in art history and English literature and a Masters in creative writing.
The Secret Agent started writing for the Financial Times’s House & Home section in 2007 and has a novel in progress. - -
Good riddance to bad conduct
After the Thesp receives a most aggressive e-mail from an ill-mannered corporate lawyer in New York, the Secret Agent decides to drop the client in spite of the recession
Marriage and The Mattress
The Secret Agent thinks his model-actress client, due to be married in May, is a little bit superstitious about buying a family house, for fear of jinxing the chance of children
Lessons in property speak
In calling prospective buyers of a flat, the Secret Agent hates himself for the assumption that old money means good taste – and new the opposite – as he uses words such as ‘sophisticated‘ and ‘old school’
Confessions of an optimist
Though doubtful that the property market can grow at the pace it did last year, the Secret Agent still takes a hopeful approach and feels 2010 is going to be a good year
A review, a revue
The Secret Agent reflects on the changes in the London property market over the past 12 months – although he assumed it would be a bleak year, things started looking up in the spring
When goodwill gets gazumped
The Secret Agent is outraged by the less-than-honourable behaviour of seemingly charming vendors of a townhouse with whom his clients already have a purchase agreement
Love and leisure
The Thesp is lovesick and the Secret Agent gives him the rest of the day off, not as a gesture of charity but because clients have begun to lose focus due to the holidays
An evening of property porn
The Secret Agent engages a friend in a diverting conversation about where they would choose to have properties – from country houses in East Anglia to beach retreats south of the equator
Fortunes and good fortune
An encounter with a tarot card reader leads the Secret Agent to realise that he has a blessed life
An unhappy return
The Secret Agent returns to an office maelstrom, where he finds himself dealing with a vendor who pulled out of a sale at the last minute and an agent who ran off to Rome with a high-rolling client
