A short, shorts story ...

Interesting little media snipped from the Irish Independent newspaper today.

Readers my know that during the seventies, Len Deighton and his family lived for part of the time in rural Ireland, in Blackrock.

A long-time resident of the village has written his memoirs, and reveals a short - but cheery - anecdote about the author's time in the village. Read here.

Up for discussion ... Berlin Game

Start of something good - Book Club Edition podcasts on Spybrary

The first Spybrary Book Club podcast edition is now out!

Check it out here.

Shane Whaley, Peter Newington and I spend an hour discussing Berlin Game, the first in the Samson series of nine spy novels.

A great story in and of itself, in the discussion we also explore the context in which the novel sets, the nine-book meta narrative for which Berlin Game is the explosive launchpad.

Peter's contribution - he's a Deighton newcomer - is essential to this podcast as he brings fresh perspectives which sometimes chime, sometimes differ with those of Shane and I.

And Peter now has the exciting opportunity to read the whole ennealogy without knowing what happens next!

Enjoy the listen, and share your thoughts below.

Game, Set and Match - Spybrary book club first edition

We're discussing Berlin Game, but Mexico Set and London Match will likely come up too

Readers, next Wednesday I'll be recording - with Spybrary's Shane Whaley and Peter Newman, the inaugural Spybrary monthly book club. It should appear on the website fairly soon after that.

The subject matter - Len Deighton's Berlin Game, the first in the nine novels looking at the experiences of his Bernard Samson character, the cynical, care-worn and desk bound former agent bought out of 'retirement' to deal with issues in the Brahms network. It's - arguably - Deighton's finest novel (when considered as a trio with Mexico Set and London Match I think) so there'll be plenty to talk about and plenty of different perspectives on the novel.

Shane is keen that the book club garners as many views as possible from Spybrary listeners on this classic of spy fiction, which will - he hopes - be the first of many book club sessions which will give readers a chance to contribute on all manner of spy fiction books. If you have views on this novel you want to share - whether you like it, hate it, or haven't finished it even - then check out the discussion on the Spybrary Facebook page.

By the way, Shane has still to edit the audio content from the recent 'SamsonFest' trip to Berlin, but be assured - this should be up on spybrary.com soon!