‘Will the real Elly Conway please stand up?’

It was the question that gripped us at the beginning of the year. Swifties were convinced it was Taylor Swift because of the Scottish Fold cat in the Argylle film trailer. But ‘Elly’ had made a mistake. In her acknowledgements in the book, she’d thanked a Dr Robert Massey. The Washington Post jumped on this, desperate to find out more and they did. ‘Elly Conway’ hadn’t contacted Dr Massey but a Tammy Cohen had. Swifties were devastated but I was elated! Someone I knew was Elly Conway! Not long after, Terry Hayes’ involvement was revealed too.

So, on the Capital Crime stage, the real Elly Conway, in the form of Terry Hayes and Tammy Cohen, joined Jake Kerridge.

Terry explained how Argylle – the novel, is a companion book to the film, not the book of the film. (It’s important to note that because it is very different to the film.) Originally, Matthew Vaughn wanted to make a movie of Hayes’ book, I Am Pilgrim. However, it was already under option with another studio. So Vaughn came up with the concept of Argylle and asked Terry to write the book. However, Terry was busy writing The Year Of The Locust. Bill Scott, the publisher at Transworld, suggested Tammy Cohen should write it. The idea was that Tammy would bring characterisation to Terry’s narrative invention.

Tammy thought everyone else had been asked before her and had said no but she was Bill Scott’s first choice. As someone who normally writes psychological thrillers, this was a big genre change.

The three of them – Terry, Tammy and Bill – had Zoom calls to develop the thrust of the story. Terry likened it to the writers’ room where screenwriters work and develop concepts together. Terry had lots of experience working collaboratively in Hollywood. He mentioned the Mad Max franchise but didn’t say that he’d worked on it. So he had lots of ideas for big scenes but Tammy drew the line at any suggestions of orgies!

While Terry provided the ideas, Tammy did all the writing. Terry loved the narrative plotting and said that these types of books ‘feed on lots of ideas like a ferocious monster’. Terry liked lots of pace and was very visual in his approach. Tammy isn’t like that so her notes from the Zoom calls didn’t always capture what Terry had said. But together, they began to create the story. One of the characters that Tammy really liked creating was Frances Coffey, head of the CIA. A middle-aged woman and therefore, immediately invisible. Perfect for the head of a secret service.

Time wasn’t on their side though as there was a very tight deadline. Jake Kerridge wondered if that had added to the momentum of the story. Both agreed it probably had. Terry would have liked another three months to have worked on the story. Ironically, they probably could have had that since the film was delayed.

Keeping the secret over two years was difficult. Only immediate family knew. Tammy remembered watching the furore over whether Taylor Swift was Elly Conway. Tammy, herself, was unwell, sitting at a table in her dressing gown, the rain streaming down, as she signed thousands of tip-ins for Argylle, desperately trying to remember how to sign ‘Elly Conway’. Not the glamour of Taylor Swift at all!

The story broke before they wanted it to and Tammy admitted that thanking a real person in the acknowledgements probably hadn’t helped. But there was still the issue of the Scottish fold cat. Terry cleared this up for us. Originally, there was a stunt cat on set that cost a lot of money to use. But it wasn’t doing the stunts. So Matthew Vaughn called up his wife, Claudia Schiffer, and asked her to bring their Scottish Fold cat to the set. It’s his own cat that appeared in the movie.

And now, the secret of Elly Conway can be laid to rest.