{"id":4928,"date":"2026-09-22T21:24:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T21:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spyscribe.com\/isdb\/?post_type=_author&p=4928"},"modified":"2026-09-22T21:24:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T21:24:27","slug":"len-deighton","status":"publish","type":"_author","link":"https:\/\/spyscribe.com\/isdb\/_author\/len-deighton\/","title":{"rendered":"Len Deighton"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":3704,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"wds_primary_isdb_country":0,"footnotes":""},"isdb_country":[],"class_list":["post-4928","_author","type-_author","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"isdb_author_id":"P0000027","author_display_name":"Len Deighton","given_name":"Leonard ","middle_name":"Cyril ","family_name":"Deighton ","pen_name":"","other_names":"","author_gender":"Unknown","author_portrait":"","short_biography":"Deighton wrote The IPCRESS File in 1960 during a long holiday in the Dordogne in south-west France. Hodder & Stoughton published it in 1962. According to Britannica, the first printing of 4,000 copies sold out on publication day. It sold more than 2.5 million copies in three years and was a best-seller in the UK, France and the US. It reached shops at the same moment as the first Bond film, Dr. No. Deighton admitted the Bond boom helped him but said his books had nothing in common with Fleming's apart from spies.","full_biography":"

Early life<\/h1>\r\nDeighton was born in the infirmary of a Marylebone workhouse because the local hospital was full. His father, Leonard, worked as chauffeur and mechanic for Campbell Dodgson, Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum. His mother, Dorothy (n\u00e9e Fitzgerald), was a part-time cook. The family lived in Gloucester Place Mews near Baker Street. Deighton liked to say he grew up in a house with 15 servants, and then add that his parents were two of them.\r\n\r\nIn 1940, aged eleven, he watched the arrest of Anna Wolkoff, a woman of Russian descent his mother cooked for. Wolkoff was charged with passing on stolen correspondence between Churchill and Roosevelt and was sentenced to ten years under the Official Secrets Act. Deighton later said seeing that arrest was a major reason his first attempt at fiction was a spy story.\r\n

Education and military service<\/h1>\r\nHe attended St Marylebone Grammar School and William Ellis School, with a spell at a wartime emergency school. After leaving school he worked as a railway clerk. He was called up for national service at 17 and spent about two and a half years in the RAF. The RAF trained him as a photographer, and he often photographed crime scenes for the Special Investigation Branch of the military police. During that time he learned to fly and became an experienced scuba diver. Both skills turn up in his fiction.\r\n\r\nA demobilisation grant paid for him to study at Saint Martin's School of Art in London. From there he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art and graduated in 1955.\r\n

Career before fiction<\/h1>\r\nWhile a student he took a temporary job in 1951 as a pastry chef at the Royal Festival Hall. He flew as a BOAC flight attendant in 1956 and 1957, then became a professional illustrator. He worked for advertising agencies in London and New York and drew more than 200 book covers, including the first UK edition of Jack Kerouac's On the Road.\r\n\r\nThe kitchen job led to his other famous invention, the cookstrip: a whole recipe drawn as a cartoon with very few words. He started sketching steps so he could remember them. The Observer ran his cookstrips weekly from March 1962 to August 1966, and the collection, Len Deighton's Action Cook Book (1965), sold well. Several of the strips are pinned to the wall of Harry Palmer's kitchen in the 1965 film, and it is Deighton's hands, not Michael Caine's, that crack and whisk the eggs on screen.\r\n

Writing career<\/h1>\r\nDeighton wrote The IPCRESS File in 1960 during a long holiday in the Dordogne in south-west France. Hodder & Stoughton published it in 1962. According to Britannica, the first printing of 4,000 copies sold out on publication day. It sold more than 2.5 million copies in three years and was a best-seller in the UK, France and the US. It reached shops at the same moment as the first Bond film, Dr. No. Deighton admitted the Bond boom helped him but said his books had nothing in common with Fleming's apart from spies.\r\n\r\nFour more novels with the same unnamed narrator followed by 1967. Funeral in Berlin (1964) spent twenty weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. He also wrote travel pieces for Playboy, edited Len Deighton's London Dossier (1967) and co-wrote a book on the Kennedy assassination.\r\n\r\nHe was sued for libel twice in this period. Rowton Hotels sued over the London Dossier's description of its hostels as doss-houses. David Stirling, founder of the SAS, sued over a 1967 Sunday Times Magazine article that said Stirling had talked about the Benghazi raid at two Cairo social events. One of those events turned out to be a dinner with Churchill and senior generals. Deighton apologised and paid damages both times.\r\n\r\nIn 1968 he produced the film of his novel Only When I Larf. He wrote and co-produced Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), fell out with director Richard Attenborough over changes to his script, and had his name taken off the credits. He did not work in film again.\r\n\r\nBomber (1970) followed a single RAF Bomber Command raid that goes wrong, told from British and German sides. He typed it on an IBM MT\/ST, and it may be the first novel written on a word processor. Historian A. J. P. Taylor encouraged him to write Fighter (1977), a history of the Battle of Britain. SS-GB (1978) came from a conversation with his art-school friend and cover designer Ray Hawkey about what Britain would look like if Germany had won.\r\n\r\nFrom 1983 to 1996 he wrote the nine Bernard Samson novels plus the prequel Winter (1987). After Charity (1996) he took a year off, decided writing was a mug's game he did not miss, and stopped. He rarely gave interviews and avoided literary festivals. He once said the best part of writing books was telling someone at a party that you wrote them, and the worst was sitting at the typewriter.\r\n

Personal life<\/h1>\r\nHe married illustrator Shirley Thompson in 1960. They had lived apart for more than five years by the time they divorced in 1976. Deighton left Britain in 1969 and lived abroad for the rest of his life, in Ireland, Austria, France, the US and Portugal. While living in Blackrock, County Louth, he married Ysabele de Ranitz, daughter of a Dutch diplomat, in February 1980. They had two sons. On Desert Island Discs in 1976 he chose a darkroom as his luxury item and The Art of Modern French Cooking as his book.\r\n

Death<\/h1>\r\nDeighton died peacefully at his home in Guernsey on Sunday 15 March 2026, aged 97. His literary agent announced the death, and obituaries ran in The Times, The New York Times and the BBC.\r\n

Genres and subgenres<\/h1>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Genre \/ subgenre<\/strong><\/td>\r\nExamples<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/thead>\r\n
Cold War espionage<\/td>\r\nThe IPCRESS File, Funeral in Berlin, Billion-Dollar Brain, the Bernard Samson novels<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Second World War fiction<\/td>\r\nBomber, Goodbye, Mickey Mouse, Declarations of War (stories), City of Gold<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Alternate history<\/td>\r\nSS-GB (Nazi-occupied Britain, 1941)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Conspiracy \/ political thriller<\/td>\r\nXPD, MAMista<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Crime \/ private eye<\/td>\r\nViolent Ward (Los Angeles)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Satire \/ comic crime<\/td>\r\nOnly When I Larf (con artists)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Hollywood novel<\/td>\r\nClose-Up<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Family saga<\/td>\r\nWinter (a Berlin family, 1899 to 1945)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Military history<\/td>\r\nFighter, Blitzkrieg, Blood, Tears and Folly<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Cookery and travel<\/td>\r\nAction Cook Book, O\u00f9 est le garlic, London Dossier<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n \r\n

Style and approach<\/h1>\r\nDeighton wrote his main spy novels in the first person, with a narrator who is working-class, sarcastic and distrustful of the Oxbridge men running his department. He said The IPCRESS File was really about a grammar-school boy among public-school boys, drawn from his time as the only board member at an advertising agency who had not gone to Eton. He called his method the \"spy procedural\", borrowing from police procedurals.\r\n\r\nResearch mattered more to him than prose. He said in 1976 that he liked research better than writing. The IPCRESS File came with footnotes and appendices on things like cannabis prices and wartime intelligence headquarters. Critic Gina Macdonald argued the technical detail sometimes crowds out plot and character. Julian Symons praised the \"constant crackle\" of his dialogue. Film historian Alan Burton put The IPCRESS File beside le Carr\u00e9's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold as the two books that changed British spy fiction in the early 1960s.\r\n\r\nDeighton also told the BBC that Bernard Samson is an unreliable narrator. Spy Sinker, the sixth Samson book, retells the earlier events in third person and shows how much Bernard got wrong about his colleagues.\r\n

Best known work: The IPCRESS File (1962)<\/h1>\r\nA British intelligence officer investigates the disappearance of scientists and uncovers a brainwashing operation (IPCRESS stands for Induction of Psycho-neuroses by Conditioned Reflex under strESS) and a traitor inside his own chain of command. The narrator has no name. Deighton kept putting off naming him and found he could finish the book without it. The film gave him the name Harry Palmer, suggested by either Michael Caine or producer Harry Saltzman.\r\n\r\nBomber is often named as his best novel by critics. Anthony Burgess included it in Ninety-nine Novels (1984), his list of the best English-language novels since 1939, and Mot\u00f6rhead named their 1979 album after it because Lemmy was reading it during recording.\r\n

Series and recurring characters<\/h1>\r\n

1. The unnamed spy (\"Harry Palmer\") novels<\/h2>\r\nNarrated by a cynical, food-loving intelligence officer from a small department called WOOC(P). The core five books run 1962 to 1967. Three later novels are often grouped with them, though the narrator of Spy Story uses the name Patrick Armstrong and readers still argue whether it is the same man.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
#<\/strong><\/td>\r\nTitle<\/strong><\/td>\r\nYear<\/strong><\/td>\r\nSetting<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/thead>\r\n
1<\/td>\r\nThe IPCRESS File<\/td>\r\n1962<\/td>\r\nLondon, Lebanon, Pacific test site<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
2<\/td>\r\nHorse Under Water<\/td>\r\n1963<\/td>\r\nPortugal, sunken U-boat<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
3<\/td>\r\nFuneral in Berlin<\/td>\r\n1964<\/td>\r\nBerlin<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
4<\/td>\r\nBillion-Dollar Brain<\/td>\r\n1966<\/td>\r\nFinland, Latvia, Texas<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
5<\/td>\r\nAn Expensive Place to Die<\/td>\r\n1967<\/td>\r\nParis<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
(6)<\/td>\r\nSpy Story<\/td>\r\n1974<\/td>\r\nLondon, Arctic war-gaming<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
(7)<\/td>\r\nYesterday's Spy<\/td>\r\n1975<\/td>\r\nSouth of France<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
(8)<\/td>\r\nTwinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy<\/td>\r\n1976<\/td>\r\nUS, North Africa<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n \r\n\r\nRecurring and notable characters include:\r\n
    \r\n \t
  • The narrator <\/strong>(Harry Palmer on film): Army sergeant turned intelligence officer, insolent with superiors, a serious cook.<\/li>\r\n \t
  • Dalby: <\/strong>the narrator's upper-class chief in WOOC(P) in The IPCRESS File.<\/li>\r\n \t
  • Colonel Ross: <\/strong>the military intelligence officer who hands the narrator over to Dalby.<\/li>\r\n \t
  • Jean Tonneson: <\/strong>the narrator's colleague and romantic interest.<\/li>\r\n \t
  • Colonel Stok: <\/strong>the KGB officer in Funeral in Berlin, played by Oskar Homolka on film.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n

    2. Bernard Samson novels (three trilogies plus a prequel)<\/h2>\r\nBernard Samson is a middle-aged SIS officer (\"the Department\") who grew up in post-war Berlin, speaks fluent German and never went to university. The whole nine-book arc turns on his wife Fiona, also an officer, who defects to East Germany at the end of Berlin Game, leaving him with their two children and under suspicion himself. The books are set between 1983 and 1988.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
    Title<\/strong><\/td>\r\nYear<\/strong><\/td>\r\nPlace in series<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/thead>\r\n
    Berlin Game<\/td>\r\n1983<\/td>\r\nGame, Set and Match trilogy, book 1<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
    Mexico Set<\/td>\r\n1984<\/td>\r\nGame, Set and Match trilogy, book 2<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
    London Match<\/td>\r\n1985<\/td>\r\nGame, Set and Match trilogy, book 3<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
    Winter<\/td>\r\n1987<\/td>\r\nPrequel: a German family, 1899 to 1945<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
    Spy Hook<\/td>\r\n1988<\/td>\r\nHook, Line and Sinker trilogy, book 1<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
    Spy Line<\/td>\r\n1989<\/td>\r\nHook, Line and Sinker trilogy, book 2<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
    Spy Sinker<\/td>\r\n1990<\/td>\r\nHook, Line and Sinker trilogy, book 3 (third person)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
    Faith<\/td>\r\n1994<\/td>\r\nFaith, Hope and Charity trilogy, book 1<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
    Hope<\/td>\r\n1995<\/td>\r\nFaith, Hope and Charity trilogy, book 2<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
    Charity<\/td>\r\n1996<\/td>\r\nFaith, Hope and Charity trilogy, book 3<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n \r\n\r\nRecurring characters include:\r\n
      \r\n \t
    • Bernard Samson: <\/strong>narrator; son of Brian Samson, a wartime SIS agent who later ran the Berlin Field Unit.<\/li>\r\n \t
    • Fiona Samson: <\/strong>Bernard's wife, Oxford-educated rising star of the Department, whose defection drives the series.<\/li>\r\n \t
    • Werner Volkmann: <\/strong>Bernard's boyhood friend from Berlin and the one person he trusts. Zena is Werner's much younger wife.<\/li>\r\n \t
    • Dicky Cruyer: <\/strong>Oxford man with no field experience who got the German Desk ahead of Bernard.<\/li>\r\n \t
    • Bret Rensselaer: <\/strong>American-born senior officer in the Department.<\/li>\r\n \t
    • Frank Harrington: <\/strong>head of the Berlin Field Unit and something of a father figure to Bernard.<\/li>\r\n \t
    • Silas Gaunt: <\/strong>retired senior figure who still pulls strings.<\/li>\r\n \t
    • Gloria Kent: <\/strong>young Department employee who becomes Bernard's partner after Fiona leaves.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n

      Complete list of novels<\/h1>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
      Title<\/strong><\/td>\r\nYear<\/strong><\/td>\r\nSeries \/ notes<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/thead>\r\n
      The IPCRESS File<\/td>\r\n1962<\/td>\r\nUnnamed spy #1<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Horse Under Water<\/td>\r\n1963<\/td>\r\nUnnamed spy #2<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Funeral in Berlin<\/td>\r\n1964<\/td>\r\nUnnamed spy #3<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Billion-Dollar Brain<\/td>\r\n1966<\/td>\r\nUnnamed spy #4<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      An Expensive Place to Die<\/td>\r\n1967<\/td>\r\nUnnamed spy #5<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Only When I Larf<\/td>\r\n1967<\/td>\r\nStandalone; comic con-artist novel<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Bomber<\/td>\r\n1970<\/td>\r\nStandalone; WWII<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Close-Up<\/td>\r\n1972<\/td>\r\nStandalone; Hollywood<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Spy Story<\/td>\r\n1974<\/td>\r\nLinked to unnamed spy books<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Yesterday's Spy<\/td>\r\n1975<\/td>\r\nLinked to unnamed spy books<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy<\/td>\r\n1976<\/td>\r\nLinked to unnamed spy books<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      SS-GB<\/td>\r\n1978<\/td>\r\nStandalone; alternate history<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      XPD<\/td>\r\n1981<\/td>\r\nStandalone; WWII secret, 1980s thriller<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Goodbye, Mickey Mouse<\/td>\r\n1982<\/td>\r\nStandalone; US fighter pilots in WWII England<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Berlin Game<\/td>\r\n1983<\/td>\r\nSamson #1<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Mexico Set<\/td>\r\n1984<\/td>\r\nSamson #2<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      London Match<\/td>\r\n1985<\/td>\r\nSamson #3<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Winter<\/td>\r\n1987<\/td>\r\nSamson prequel<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Spy Hook<\/td>\r\n1988<\/td>\r\nSamson #4<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Spy Line<\/td>\r\n1989<\/td>\r\nSamson #5<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Spy Sinker<\/td>\r\n1990<\/td>\r\nSamson #6<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      MAMista<\/td>\r\n1991<\/td>\r\nStandalone; South American guerrillas<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      City of Gold<\/td>\r\n1991<\/td>\r\nStandalone; wartime Cairo, 1942<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Violent Ward<\/td>\r\n1993<\/td>\r\nStandalone; Los Angeles crime<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Faith<\/td>\r\n1994<\/td>\r\nSamson #7<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Hope<\/td>\r\n1995<\/td>\r\nSamson #8<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Charity<\/td>\r\n1996<\/td>\r\nSamson #9<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n \r\n\r\nShort fiction: Declarations of War (1971), stories mostly about soldiers and war. He also contributed \"Sherlock Holmes and the Titanic Swindle\" to the Detection Club anthology The Verdict of Us All (2006).\r\n

      Non-fiction<\/h1>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
      Title<\/strong><\/td>\r\nYear<\/strong><\/td>\r\nSubject<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/thead>\r\n
      Len Deighton's Action Cook Book<\/td>\r\n1965<\/td>\r\nCookery (Observer cookstrips)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      O\u00f9 est le garlic<\/td>\r\n1965<\/td>\r\nFrench cookery<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      The Assassination of President Kennedy<\/td>\r\n1967<\/td>\r\nHistory (with Michael Rand, Howard Loxton)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Len Deighton's London Dossier<\/td>\r\n1967<\/td>\r\nTravel guide (editor)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Continental Dossier<\/td>\r\n1968<\/td>\r\nTravel guide<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain<\/td>\r\n1977<\/td>\r\nMilitary history<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Airshipwreck<\/td>\r\n1978<\/td>\r\nHistory of airships (with Arnold Schwartzman)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Blitzkrieg<\/td>\r\n1979<\/td>\r\nMilitary history, rise of Hitler to Dunkirk<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Basic French Cooking<\/td>\r\n1979<\/td>\r\nCookery<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Battle of Britain<\/td>\r\n1980<\/td>\r\nMilitary history<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      ABC of French Food<\/td>\r\n1989<\/td>\r\nCookery<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Basic French Cookery Course<\/td>\r\n1990<\/td>\r\nCookery<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Blood, Tears and Folly<\/td>\r\n1993<\/td>\r\nMilitary history, WWII to 1942<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      James Bond: My Long and Eventful Search for His Father<\/td>\r\n2012<\/td>\r\nKindle essay on Fleming's Bond<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n \r\n

      Film adaptations<\/h1>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
      Title<\/strong><\/td>\r\nYear<\/strong><\/td>\r\nDirector<\/strong><\/td>\r\nNotes<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/thead>\r\n
      The Ipcress File<\/td>\r\n1965<\/td>\r\nSidney J. Furie<\/td>\r\nMichael Caine as Harry Palmer; produced by Harry Saltzman. Won the BAFTA for Best British Film.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Funeral in Berlin<\/td>\r\n1966<\/td>\r\nGuy Hamilton<\/td>\r\nCaine as Palmer; Oskar Homolka as Colonel Stok.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Billion Dollar Brain<\/td>\r\n1967<\/td>\r\nKen Russell<\/td>\r\nCaine as Palmer; Karl Malden, Fran\u00e7oise Dorl\u00e9ac.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Only When I Larf<\/td>\r\n1968<\/td>\r\nBasil Dearden<\/td>\r\nRichard Attenborough, David Hemmings. Deighton produced.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Oh! What a Lovely War<\/td>\r\n1969<\/td>\r\nRichard Attenborough<\/td>\r\nDeighton wrote and co-produced but had his name removed.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Spy Story<\/td>\r\n1976<\/td>\r\nLindsay Shonteff<\/td>\r\nLow-budget British film; Michael Petrovitch in the lead.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Bullet to Beijing<\/td>\r\n1995<\/td>\r\nGeorge Mihalka<\/td>\r\nTV film; Caine as Palmer. Original story, not from a Deighton book.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Midnight in Saint Petersburg<\/td>\r\n1996<\/td>\r\nDouglas Jackson<\/td>\r\nTV film; Caine as Palmer. Original story.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n \r\n

      Television and radio adaptations<\/h1>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
      Title<\/strong><\/td>\r\nYear<\/strong><\/td>\r\nNetwork<\/strong><\/td>\r\nNotes<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/thead>\r\n
      Game, Set and Match<\/td>\r\n1988<\/td>\r\nGranada \/ ITV<\/td>\r\nAdapts Berlin Game, Mexico Set and London Match. Ian Holm as Bernard Samson, Mel Martin as Fiona. Shot in Berlin and Mexico; reported budget of $8 million. About 12 to 13 one-hour episodes depending on source. Critics liked it; ratings were poor.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      Bomber (radio)<\/td>\r\n1995<\/td>\r\nBBC Radio 4<\/td>\r\nReal-time drama in four two-hour parts, broadcast from 2:30 pm to midnight, woven through the day's schedule.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      SS-GB<\/td>\r\n2017<\/td>\r\nBBC One<\/td>\r\nFive episodes. Sam Riley as Detective Superintendent Douglas Archer.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      The Ipcress File<\/td>\r\n2022<\/td>\r\nITV<\/td>\r\nSix episodes, 6 March to 10 April 2022. Written by John Hodge, directed by James Watkins. Joe Cole as Palmer, with Lucy Boynton and Tom Hollander. Alexander Deighton is listed among the executive producers. No second series was made.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n \r\n\r\nUnmade projects: Quentin Tarantino talked in 2008 and 2009 about turning the Game, Set and Match trilogy into a film; it never happened. In 2013 Clerkenwell Films announced a TV version of all nine Samson novels with a script by Simon Beaufoy. That also has not reached the screen.\r\n

      Reception and influence<\/h1>\r\nDeighton is usually grouped with Graham Greene, Eric Ambler and John le Carr\u00e9. Critic George Grella called him the angry young man of the espionage novel. His working-class heroes were a direct counter to Fleming's Eton-educated Bond, and that contrast is why the 1965 film is so often called the anti-Bond.\r\n\r\nA few specific traces of his reach: Aung San Suu Kyi mentioned reading his books under house arrest. V. S. Naipaul credited Deighton with starting his interest in collecting Indian art. Thriller writer Jeremy Duns names him as an influence, and the Detection Club dedicated its 2020 craft book Howdunit to him.","author_status":false,"author_official_website":"","author_wikipedia_url":"","author_agencies":false,"birth_date":"19290218","death_date":"20260315","birthplace":"Marylebone, London, England","nationality":"British","author_education":"","author_family":"","occupation_service":"","author_intelligence_service":"","author_country":null,"author_awards":null,"author_books":"","author_series":"","author_characters":"","author_publishers":"","author_organizations":"","author_adaptations":null,"authority_identifier":"","author_record_status":"Published","author_verification_status":"Verified","author_editorial_notes":"","author_sources":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spyscribe.com\/isdb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_author\/4928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spyscribe.com\/isdb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_author"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spyscribe.com\/isdb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/_author"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spyscribe.com\/isdb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_author\/4928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spyscribe.com\/isdb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spyscribe.com\/isdb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"isdb_country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spyscribe.com\/isdb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/isdb_country?post=4928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}