About Adam
I am a British author, journalist and editorial and media trainer. I worked as a foreign correspondent for thirty years, covering Hungary, central Europe and the Balkans for The Times, The Independent, the Economist and many other publications.
I’ve covered wars and uprisings, investigated war criminals, Nazi gold and international finance. It’s been quite a ride – I have been arrested, shot at and teargassed. I’ve seen nations disappear and new countries emerge from the wreckage. I once met a man in a bar in Odessa who offered to sell me a MiG-29 – a bargain at $8 million, with extra missiles thrown in.
Nowadays life is less perilous but just as fulfilling. I review thrillers for the Financial Times and television for The Critic. I also review books for The Times and the Economist. I work as an editorial trainer and writing coach. My clients include the Financial Times, Citywire and Monocle. I have also worked for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Arvon Foundation and Mishcon de Reya.
I’ve written sixteen critically-acclaimed books – seven thrillers and nine works of non-fiction which have been published in fifteen languages including Chinese, Korean and Hebrew.
Non-fiction
My most recent work, The Last Days of Budapest, is the first English-language account of the Hungarian capital during the Second World War. The Last Days of Budapest was a Best Book of 2025 in The Times, the Economist, the Jewish Chronicle and the New Statesman and was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize. The Last Days of Budapest has so far also been published in Hungarian, Dutch and Spanish.
Tower of Basel, my best-selling investigative history of the Bank for International Settlements, is being republished in an updated second edition in autumn 2026. The book reveals how the world’s most influential financial institution has continually reinvented itself to stay at the centre of the global financial system.
My other books include City of Oranges, which recounts the story of Jewish and Arab families in the ancient port city of Jaffa and Hitler’s Secret Bankers, which exposed Swiss economic complicity with the Third Reich. Hitler’s Secret Bankers was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and City of Oranges was shortlisted for the Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize. Both books have been republished by Head of Zeus in new and updated editions.
Fiction
The Danube Blues noir crime series unfolds in Budapest during and after the 2015 refugee crisis. District VIII, Kossuth Square and Dohany Street all feature Balthazar Kovacs, a Roma detective in the Budapest murder squad. Kossuth Square was a Times crime fiction Book of the Month and Dohany Street a Sunday Times Crime Club choice.
The Yael Azoulay books, The Geneva Option, The Washington Stratagem and The Reykjavik Assignment are a fast-paced trilogy of international conspiracy thrillers unfolding in the United Nations against a back-drop of high-power politics, intrigue and betrayal.
My first thriller, The Budapest Protocol, featuring Alex Farkas, a foreign correspondent who uncovers a sinister Nazi-era conspiracy to take over Europe, was published in six languages.
Contact me
I am always pleased to hear from readers, journalists, editors or organisations interested in my work.
You can find me on Twitter/X and on Instagram at @adamlebor.