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Len Deighton Bibliography
Len Deighton (born 18 February 1929) is an English author known for his novels, works of military history, screenplays and cookery writing. He had a varied career, including as a pastry cook, waiter, co-editor of a magazine, teacher and air steward before writing his first novel in 1962: ''The IPCRESS File''. He continued to produce what his biographer John Reilly considers "stylish, witty, well-crafted novels" in spy fiction, including three trilogies and a prequel featuring Bernard Samson. Deighton authored two television scripts, the first of which was ''Long Past Glory'' in 1963; he also wrote a film script, ''Oh! What a Lovely War'' (1969). His long-held interest in cooking—his mother had been a professional chef and instilled a love for cuisine in her son—led to an illustrated cookery column in the Sunday newspaper, ''The Observer'', for two years. The work was collected into two later books, ''Len Deighton's Action Cook Book'' and ''Où est le garlic'' (both 1965); he sub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Len Deighton
Leonard Cyril Deighton (; born 18 February 1929) is a British author. His publications have included cookery books, history and military history, but he is best known for his spy novels. After completing his national service in the Royal Air Force, Deighton attended art school in London, and graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1955. He had several jobs before becoming a book and magazine illustrator—including designing the cover for first UK edition of Jack Kerouac's 1957 work ''On the Road''. He also worked for a period in an advertising agency. During an extended holiday in France he wrote his first novel, ''The IPCRESS File'', which was published in 1962, and was a critical and commercial success. He wrote several spy novels featuring the same central character, a working-class intelligence officer, cynical and tough. Between 1962 and 1966 Deighton was the food correspondent for ''The Observer'' and drew cookstrips—black and white graphic recipes with a limited nu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Assassination Of John F
Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a direct role in matters of the state, may also sometimes be considered an assassination. An assassination may be prompted by political and military motives, or done for financial gain, to avenge a grievance, from a desire to acquire fame or notoriety, or because of a military, security, insurgent or secret police group's command to carry out the assassination. Acts of assassination have been performed since ancient times. A person who carries out an assassination is called an assassin or hitman. Etymology The word ''assassin'' may be derived from '' asasiyyin'' (Arabic: أَسَاسِيِّين, ʾasāsiyyīn) from أَسَاس (ʾasās, "foundation, basis") + ـِيّ (-iyy), meaning "people who are faithful to the foundati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spy Story (novel)
''Spy Story'' is a 1974 spy novel by Len Deighton, which features minor characters from his earlier novels '' The IPCRESS File'', ''Funeral in Berlin'', ''Horse Under Water'', and '' Billion Dollar Brain''. In common with several of his other early novels, the chapter headings have a "feature". In ''Spy Story'' these take the form of excerpts from the fictional Studies Centre's rules. Protagonist As in the earlier " Unnamed hero" novels, we never learn the protagonist's name, only that he is living under an alias "Pat Armstrong". Armstrong works for the Studies Centre in London, where wargames are played with computer assistance, using the latest intelligence data on Soviet electronic warfare capabilities. We learn in passing that Armstrong is in his late 30s and that he formerly worked for an unnamed intelligence organisation, which may well be the WOOC(P) of the earlier books – Dawlish, the head of WOOC(P) in the earlier novels, appears as a character, where it is reveale ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bomber (novel)
''Bomber'' is a novel by Len Deighton that was published in the United Kingdom in 1970. It is the fictionalised account of "the events relating to the last flight of an RAF Bomber over Germany on the night of June 31st, 1943", a deliberately impossible date, in which an Royal Air Force, RAF bombing raid on the Ruhr area of western Germany goes wrong. In each chapter, the Plot (narrative), plot is advanced by seeing the progress of the day through the eyes of protagonists on both sides of the conflict. ''Bomber'' was the first novel to be written on a word processor, the IBM MT/ST. Plot summary Sam Lambert is an experienced RAF Bomber Command Avro Lancaster pilot based in East Anglia. He has flown almost fifty bombing missions over Germany as part of the Combined Bomber Offensive since the start of the war. As Lambert nears his tour's end, he is developing signs of exhaustion. Lambert is an accomplished cricketer and the station commander needs his participation to assure victory ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Only When I Larf (film)
''Only When I Larf'' is a 1968 British light-hearted comedy crime drama, directed by Basil Dearden, and starring Richard Attenborough, David Hemmings, and Alexandra Stewart. It is adapted from the 1968 novel ''Only When I Larf'' by Len Deighton, and features Attenborough as an ex-brigadier con man in a variety of guises. Plot summary In New York City, a trio of confidence tricksters enter a tall office block and go to an empty unit on the 39th floor. They quickly change the identity of the office. Two Americans arrive. Lowther (Attenborough) assumes the role of Mr Stevens, the boss. Bob is ushered in by the secretary and introduced as Mr Glover. They discuss high finance in front of the Americans. They persuade the Americans to write a cheque for $250,000. He writes a cheque for $2 million to them. The cheques are placed in a faux wall safe. Bob goes to other side and takes the smaller cheque out. He re-disguises himself as a security guard. He goes to the bank with Liz and she ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Joseph (publisher)
Michael Joseph (26 September 1897 – 15 March 1958) was a British publisher and writer. Early life and career Joseph was born in Upper Clapton, London. He served in the British Army during the First World War, and then embarked on a writing career, his first book being ''Short Story Writing for Profit'' (1923). After a period as a literary agent for Curtis Brown, Joseph founded his own publishing imprint as a subsidiary of Victor Gollancz Ltd. Gollancz invested £4000 in Michael Joseph Ltd, established 5 September 1935. Joseph and Victor Gollancz disagreed on many points and Michael Joseph bought out Gollancz Ltd in 1938 after Gollancz attempted to censor ''Across the Frontiers'' by Sir Philip Gibbs on political grounds. (Joseph published the first edition in 1938 and a revised edition the following May.) Joseph managed to build up an impressive list of authors, such as H. E. Bates, C. S. Forester, Monica Dickens, and Richard Llewellyn. Personal life Joseph married actress H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Only When I Larf
Len Deighton's ''Only When I Larf'' is a 1968 British comic thriller describing the activities of a team of three confidence tricksters led by Silas Lowther (late 40s), his girlfriend Liz Mason (late 20s) and wannabe apprentice and Liz-worshipper Bob (early 20s). It was published in 1968 by Michael Joseph (publisher), Michael Joseph and in paperback by Sphere Books, Sphere. It is currently (2012) printed by Harper in the UK. The novel interleaves first-person narratives from Bob (76 pages in 7 chapters), Liz (78 pages in 6 chapters) and Silas (88 pages in 5 chapters). Their increasingly contradictory descriptions of shared experiences contribute to the humour. This Unreliable narrator, unreliable narration adds to the atmosphere around deceiving "the marks". The title is explained in a variety of unlikely anecdotes where in each case a critically injured third party bravely replies this when asked "Does it hurt?" Adaptations A film adaptation of ''Only When I Larf (film), Only Wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
An Expensive Place To Die
''An Expensive Place to Die'' is a 1967 novel by Len Deighton. It is set initially in Paris and takes its title from an Oscar Wilde quotation about the said city. ("Dying in Paris is a terribly expensive business for a foreigner.") The action concerns the shady dealing and possible expensive pimping of one Monsieur Datt against a background of espionage. This is the fifth novel in the "unnamed hero" series, but unlike the previous ones, it includes chapters and sections in the third person.Author's introduction to the HarperCollins edition, London, 2012 Plot The unnamed protagonist, a British intelligence officer, is told to leak to the Chinese information about the effectiveness of nuclear weapons, to bolster their deterrent effect. M Datt, posing as a psychologist, believes he is working for the Chinese by accumulating compromising film of the sexual activities of various influential people. The Chinese have no interest in the films and the narrator does a deal with the Frenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billion-Dollar Brain
''Billion-Dollar Brain'' is a 1966 Cold War spy novel by Len Deighton. It was the fourth to feature an unnamed secret agent working for the British WOOC(P) intelligence agency. It follows ''The IPCRESS File'' (1962), ''Horse Under Water'' (1963), and ''Funeral in Berlin'' (1964). As in most of Deighton's novels, the plot of ''Billion Dollar Brain'' (1967) is intricate, with many dead ends. Plot The unnamed protagonist is ordered to Helsinki by Dawlish, his boss, to suppress a newspaper article, potentially embarrassing to the U.K. government, about to be published by a Finnish journalist. He finds the journalist murdered and coincidentally meets a young woman who attempts to recruit him into the British Intelligence. This woman, Signe Laine, is both romantically connected to and working for the protagonist's old American friend Harvey Newbegin (who also appeared in ''Funeral in Berlin''). Newbegin in turn attempts to recruit him into a private intelligence outfit, whose netwo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Funeral In Berlin
''Funeral in Berlin'' is a 1964 spy novel by Len Deighton set between Saturday 5 October and Sunday 10 November 1963. It was the third of Deighton's novels about an unnamed British agent. It was preceded by ''The IPCRESS File'' (1962) and ''Horse Under Water'' (1963), and followed by ''Billion-Dollar Brain'' (1966). Plot The protagonist, who is unnamed, travels to Berlin to arrange the defection of a Soviet scientist named Semitsa, this being brokered by Johnny Vulkan of the Berlin intelligence community.Baker, Brian (2006) ''Masculinity in Fiction and Film: Representing Men in Popular ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation for high quality design and production and a fine list of English-language authors, fostered by the firm's editor and reader Edward Garnett. Cape's list of writers ranged from poets including Robert Frost and C. Day Lewis, to children's authors such as Hugh Lofting and Arthur Ransome, to James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, to heavyweight fiction by James Joyce and T. E. Lawrence. After Cape's death, the firm later merged successively with three other London publishing houses. In 1987 it was taken over by Random House. Its name continues as one of Random House's British imprints. Cape – biography Early years Herbert Jonathan Cape was born in London on 15 November 1879, the youngest of the seven children of Jonathan Cape, a clerk from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
