Samson, yes … but Delilah? [Guest post]

What are the parallels, if any, between Bernie Samson and his biblical namesake?

[This is a guest post by first-time contributor Seymour Maddison]

Caveat: While I’ve tried to avoid spoilers, a piece like this inevitably poses a risk for any of you still enjoying the Samson trilogies for the first time.

As much as I appreciate Len Deighton’s non-fiction and earlier novels, I experience an especial thrill every time I return to the Bernard Samson books, not least because of how they have influenced my own mystery writing. 

Not only do the three trilogies [Berlin Game, Mexico Set, London Match; Spy Hook, Spy Line, Spy Sinker; Faith, Hope, Charity] and Winter showcase a fiction writer at the peak of his craft: I’d suggest they conceal a heavy dose of intrigue. 

This post is therefore an invitation to join me in trying to make sense of what lies below the surface.

In particular, I’d like to propose that the series contains some rarely-if-ever-discussed theories, capable of challenging Deighton novices and aficionados alike. Inspired by an earlier post, the first of these I’ve come to christen ‘The Samson & Delilah Hypothesis’ – and anyone squeamish should be warned that we’re going to need a copy of the Old Testament!

Have you ever pondered: why ‘Samson’?

The only association with the name Samson that I have is through the Bible story. You remember :

Strong man loses his powers when his hair is shorn while he sleeps … his missus is betraying him because … something to do with him continually beating up the Philistines … and then there was this lion … and he goes blind (Samson, not the lion) yet still manages to shove over a temple, in the process killing heaps of baddies … and so on.

Hopefully you paid more attention as a kid than I did! Which is why I was motivated to revisit the Book of Judges recently, in the process discovering multiple versions of the tale. And naturally, that was just some of the English language interpretations.

So … about that Samson & Delilah Hypothesis.

And I mean, in particular, this one: vested interests work to neutralise the significant threat that is (Bernard) Samson.

Sounds pretty straightforward.

Yet apparently, it’s not something discussed elsewhere. But if the theory holds water – and I’m claiming that not only does the Samson tale go to the heart of Deighton’s choice of the name, but can be mapped across the entire plot – does this not suggest a new lens through which you can view the series?

Doubtless you as a reader can recall more of the original story than I could. 

But on reflection, then, to what extent do you agree that a clear parallel seems to exist between Bernie and his biblical counterpart? That is to say: 

• Both stride around, effortlessly taking out their opponents [Eastern Bloc intelligence or the Philistines] 
• Yet, simultaneously, both stumble around their emotional landscape, unable to experience normal relations with the women in their lives 
• Meantime, covert forces work to remove them from the conflict. 

So where is there crossover between the Book of Judges and Deighton’s labyrinthine plot?

To get you thinking, can I propose the following matches for some of the main locations mentioned :

• Israel = The West
• The Philistines = the Warsaw Pact countries [see Judges 14:4 - ‘at that time the Philistines lorded it over Israel’]
• The camp of Dan = the British
• Zorah = West Berlin

And for some of the supporting characters :

• Manoah = Brian Samson [Bernard’s dad]
• Father-in-law = David Kimber-Hutchison [Fiona’s dad]
• Younger sister = Tessa

I’m sure readers will easily be able to suggest more … however, I’d caution against assuming, as I did, that just because Delilah always gets paired with Samson, then ‘Delilah’ must be Fiona!

You see, it turns out that in the Old Testament story (and this was exactly the kind of detail I’d forgotten or never knew), Samson was married before he met Delilah.

To the clear disappointment of his parents, he’d set his heart on ‘a woman … of the daughters of the Philistines.’ Unfortunately, this union, like all of Samson’s relationships, didn’t end too well!

Even by the time of their wedding, his bride had succumbed to coercion and was favouring her own people over him. Perhaps tellingly, the wife seems to drop out of the story before Delilah appears on the scene (we’ll return to this later I’m sure, in the comments). The account is quite salacious and only explained in part; though clearly some of the marital disharmony at least was caused by Samson’s father-in-law.

Based on the above, I’m suggesting that Fiona is synonymous with Samson’s initial wife and that, because of the role she subsequently plays in Bernard’s life, ‘Delilah’ is in fact Gloria. 

Witness her [Gloria's] ongoing attempts to have him succumb to domestic bliss; and remembering the explanation that ‘Forces work to remove (Samson) from the conflict,’ what finer way to yoke a family (and man’s) man than by creating a home so inviting that it overrides all urges which would otherwise keep drawing him outdoors?

Did somebody order a haircut?

So far so good, although I’d also not rush to judgment about who ‘the lords of the Philistines’ are; they are regularly mentioned as pulling the strings which oppose Samson.

During his November 2012 interview with Len Deighton, you may have read Rob Mallows [Deighton Dossier editor] alluding to Silas Gaunt as ‘the mastermind behind everything.’

According to the transcript, however, the author didn’t confirm this assertion outright. Rather, as he went on to explain his planning process before beginning to write:

'I started off with a wall chart outlining a series of twelve [sic] books … In the chart Silas was the master-mind. At the end of writing Berlin Game I wasn't sure if it would all work out as planned.’

So if Uncle Silas isn’t necessarily the ultimate puppet master, who else can you think of who may be in the frame?

I myself have one idea to share, however, I would be very interested to hear other readers’ perspectives at this point: either something you’ve discerned from one or more of the books or, in the spirit of scientific endeavour, maybe you have evidence which blows out of the water my starting hypothesis, perhaps one of the identifications, etc?

But hang on, that’s right. You were promised more than one thought-provoking theory, weren’t you?

Well. What if Deighton’s plotting goes deeper still?

What if the enemy isn’t only running defensive operations ‘to neutralise the significant threat that is Samson’? What if the author has helped them penetrate London Central itself?

We can of course get into these and other mysteries in the comments section. But I would set out a challenge Deighton Dossier readers: what’s your reading of my Samson & Delilah Hypothesis?

What impacts would you say the biblical story has had on Deighton’s series?

The Deighton Dossier thanks Seymour for his contribution. So, what do you think, Dossier readers? Carry on the discussion either in the comments section, or on the Dossier Facebook page.

Ein Spaziergang durch Berlin - SamsonFest 2018 podcast now out

Deighton Dossier readers, after nearly three months of hard editing, stitching together, curating and adding of music, the Spybrary SamsonFest 2018 podcast is now available here on Spybrary.

Over one hour and eight minutes of conversation from six spybrarians wandering around freely across East and West Berlin - this time, with no Wall in theway - in the footsteps of Bernard Samson, and using Berlin Game as a jumping off point for convesations about Len Deighton's other works, and thenceforth into spy fiction and spy fiction culture in general.

All helped by lots of lovely German libations, freely poured and drunk.

While it talks more widely than Berlin Game, we were careful to keep it spoiler free, so if you haven't read beyond this book - and why not? - it's safe for you to listen.

Hope you enjoy it.

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!

Going "drüben"

Drüben, which in German means "over there", is frequently used by Werner Volkmann and Bernard Samson in the Game, Set and Match books as a cover for going behind the Iron Curtain into East Berlin, bailiwick of one Erich Stinnes, KGB Colonel.

This last weekend, the Deighton Dossier - with Shane Whaley from Spybrary and some other spybrarians - went "drüben", even though the Wall is now, to most Berliners, a hazy memory. Our objective was to visit a few of the places that feature in Berlin Game, the opening novel of the Game, Set and Match ennealogy, to help listeners gain insight into why these books are landmarks in spy fiction, why Bernard Samson is the most unconventional and conflicted of spies, and why Berlin makes such a great location for spy fiction (and for podcasts).

So, we went to Checkpoint Charlie (venue for the marvellous opening scene in Chapter One which tells us so much about Bernard and Werner's relationship), Friedrichstrasse S-Bahn (Bernard's frequent route "drüben", Tante Lisl's house in Charlottenburg (at least, the one portrayed in the mini-series from 1988), and Normannenstrasse. Along the way we read passages from the books, talked about the characterisations, mixed in some general spy fiction chatter, all of which should lead to a great edition of the Spybrary podcast.

Let's go clubbing ...

Shane Whaley over at Spybrary - as if he hasn't got enough on his hands already, what with running the best spy fiction podcast out there - has a new initiative.

He's started a regular monthly book club for listeners to discuss different spy fiction novels each month, not only by recorded their comments up on the website but by recording and broadcasting their comments on a new show, which will feature a number of guests discussing the work and drawing out why the book in question deserves to feature on every spybrarian's bookshelf.

The first novel under discussion? I'm pleased that Shane's asked the Dossier to help with that, and we're going to be discussing Len Deighton's Berlin Game next month.

If you want more information about the book club and this first book - and how you can contribute your views, whether it's the first time you've read the novel or, like me, it's a perennial favourite - click here.

What with the upcoming 4 August Spybrary 'Samsonfest' meetup in Berlin, it's a great opportunity for readers old and new of Deighton's magnum opus to share their views, argue, and agree and disagree about this book (and the nine that follow in the series).

In the days before flat whites and skinny moccachinos, there was .... chagga

'Oh really, Bernard ...!"

This post was inspired by an email from Deighton Dossier reader Morgan Davies, who sent a link to a shop in London which is referenced frequently by everyone's favourite buffoonish (or is he?) spy in the Samson series of books, Dicky Cruyer.

The shop in question is H R Higgins, purveyor of fine ground coffee in London to the great and the good. Morgan confirmed they are still selling the mysterious "chagga" coffee, which was part of Dicky's daily routine as Head of German Desk at London Central, where he (in theory at least) had full control over agents like Bernard Samson in East Berlin.

This minor detail in an otherwise massive nine-volume text I think illustrates how great writers like Deighton and others use details and moments to round out their characters and deliver subconscious signposting to help the reader understand each character's personality and outlook, and their relationships to others.

Here's some classic back-and-forth repartée between Dicky Samson and his employee, Bernard Samson, when we first meet them in Berlin Game:

'He [Cruyer] had his coffee served in a fine Spode china cup and saucer, and he stirred it with a silver spoon. On the mahogany tray, there was another Spode cup and saucer, a matching sugar bowl, and a silver creamer fashioned in the shape of a cow. 

......

He sipped his coffee and then tasted it carefully, moving his lips while staring at me as if I might have come to sell him the year's crop. 'It's just a shade bitter, don't you think, Bernard?' 

'Nescafé all tastes the same to me,' I said. 

'This is pure chagga, ground just before it was brewed.' He said it calmly but nodded to acknowledge my little attempt to annoy him. 

'Well, he didn't turn up,' I said. 'We can sit here drinking chagga all morning and it won't bring Brahms Four over the wire.

In the reader's first experience of Cruyer and Samson's relationship over 'chagga', key things are established.

Samson, not Palmer, wins out according to the Daily Telegraph

In last weekend's  (30 July) Daily Telegraph, journalist Jake Kerridge picks out his top twenty greatest spy novels of all time.

As is always the case with lists, it's a source of debate and discussion rather than a definitive, unchallengeable statement of fact. However, he includes some surprising inclusions as well as obvious choices.

Pleasingly, Deighton's contribution to the genre is acknowledged, but not in the way you might think. Rather than plumping for one of the five unnamed spy novels (i.e. Harry Palmer), Kerridge selects Berlin Game, and here I agree with him. If I had to make a choice, the scale of this book - which, he writes, "is a feast of plotting which out-le-Carré's-le-Carré" - makes it the superior choice, certainly in comparison to the other great spy novels on the list. Just like 83.2% of all Berlin Game reviews, Kerridge makes reference to the "sardonic and disillusioned" character of spy Bernard Samson as one of the reasons for the books inclusion.

Interestingly, Kerridge, when discussing Berlin Game, makes reference to an old story/rumour from about eight years ago that director Quentin Tarantino was going to make a film of the series. This was always only a throwaway remark from the director in one interview, but it seems to have gained traction over time.

Pointing towards the lack of detailed research which can often be shown in articles like this, Kerridge makes no reference to the recent rights sale to Clerkenwell Films of the rights to Berlin Game and the other eight novels in the series. That may be because since the announcement two years ago, and to the frustration of readers, there's been no smoke arising from camp Clerkenwell about when they're going to actually get around to filming the bloomin' thing.

What other novels could, or should, be included?

Bernard Samson to reach the TV screen (again) ...

Soon, in celluloid (or rather, MP4)

Confirmed in today's Bookseller the news I mentioned below but had to keep stumm about: the Deighton Dossier can confirm that over 25 years after the first portrayal of Len Deighton's spy creation Bernard Samson on ITV, he is making it back onto TV ... this time, however, across all nine books in the trip trilogy.

Here is the news release from Clerkenwell Films, reproduced in full:

Oscar-winner Simon Beaufoy to bring Deighton to the screen.

Clerkenwell Films today announced that they are developing an 18 part series based on Len Deighton's classic Cold War novels featuring the iconic spy Bernard Samson. With over 40 million book sales, Len Deighton's Bernard Samson novels are regarded as his masterwork and one of the greatest spy stories of all time. Covering a vast array of international locations from London to Berlin to Mexico City and California, the series follows the exploits of Bernard Samson, an ex MI6 field agent who is drawn back into active duty in a quest to uncover the truth about his wife's defection to the KGB.

Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire, The Full Monty, 127 Hours) says:

'Deighton's masterful series of novels draws the hidden political map of the late twentieth century. It is all here: murders, honey-traps and spy swaps, the double-dealing and manoeuvring of nations jousting for position at the height of the Cold War, with Bernard Samson, the Bond with brains, giving it an almost Chandleresque sense of cool. The novels have at their heart a love story of Shakespearian proportions, taking in passion, betrayal, loyalty and the lengths we will go for the love of country and the love of one another.'

Len Deighton says:

'Writing it took well over ten years of my life, and it was my hope and firm belief that some day a film company would want to bring the entire series of books to the screen. Now it has happened. The impressive resources of Clerkenwell Films - and notably the talents of Simon Beaufoy - have embarked on this exciting project. I thank everyone concerned for this happy outcome, and I am confident that Bernard, and his associates, will make many new friends'.

Murray Ferguson, Chief Executive of Clerkenwell Films says:

' With the increasing international appetite for compelling and intelligent long form serial drama, the time is ripe to bring these wonderful novels to the screen, and television is absolutely the best place to do it. With Len Deighton and Simon Beaufoy we are working with two giants in their field. Set in London, Berlin, America and around the world we will be casting from the premier league of international talent.'

Notes to Editors:

Len Deighton

The best-selling author achieved worldwide fame with his spy novels Funeral in Berlin and The Ipcress File, made into an iconic movie starring Michael Caine. Deighton's first Bernard Samson novels, Berlin Game, Mexico Set and London Match, cemented his position as one of the world's leading spy and thriller writers, and has been described by the Sunday Times as 'the poet of the spy story'.

Simon Beaufoy

Simon Beaufoy is one of the world's leading screenwriters, best known for writing the film Slumdog Millionaire which won him an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA award. Also Oscar nominated for The Full Monty, Simon's other credits include 127 Hours and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.

Clerkenwell Films

Clerkenwell Films is a multi-award winning production company. Formed in 1998 the company has gone on to establish itself as one of the leading producers in the UK, creating high quality, popular drama for both UK and international audiences. Among its credits are award-winning, critically acclaimed shows such as MISFITS, AFTERLIFE and PERSUASION.

Lot's to discuss. Starting gun fired ..... now!

New shots of Samson's Berlin ....

Up on the main Deighton Dossier website I've added a new gallery page showing more of the locations in Berlin which feature heavily in the books and in the Thames TV adaptation.

I've reproduced three of the shots below. Berlin really is one of the key characters in the nine-volume series; though the city has changed dramatically from the time the books were written, the key locations which anchor the narrative are still visible:

The Soviet Army HQ at Karlshorst, source of the leaked intercept which is at the heart of the deception in the Game, Set and Match series of novels

The Müggelheimerdamm, where Werner exfiltrates agent Dr Walter von Munte

Location of the hostage transfer of Werner Volkmann and Erich Stinnes at the end of London Match

Internet flotsam and jetsam ...

(c) Len Deighton

So far in February there have been a number of Deighton-related items of interest which I'm gathering together for readers in this post.

First up, one of Len's contemporaries and close friends Ted Dicks died recently, and Len wrote a moving tribute to his friend in The Guardian on 3 February, describing Dicks (see Len's illustration, right) as having lived 'a life crammed with many separate talents.' The Guardian also carried a full obituary for Dicks, who among many accomplishments composed the classic Bernard Cribbins song, 'Right, said Fred'.

It's also sad to report that British character actor Frederick Treves has also passed on, as reported in The Guardian obituary column. The picture with the obituary (below) reports his role as Head of the Berlin Station Frank Harrington, who plays both political ally and father figure to lead character Bernard Samson. I think that of all the main characters in the TV adaptation - criticised and subsequently pulled by Deighton after one showing - Treves's Frank is closest to what I imagined having read the books first.

(c) ITV/Rex Features

On a different media - the radio - former BBC Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer wrote an excellent review of 70 years of Desert Island Discs in the Financial Times in late January; there is a reference there to the scheduling surprise in 1995 when Bomber was broadcast over a whole day.

With 2012 representing the fiftieth anniversary of The IPCRESS File's publication (more on that in subsequent blogs), I stumbled across an interesting article in the Kensington & Chelsea Today newspaper website about a local author who's written a novel based around the lives of a group of architects. The front covers is, apparently, an homage to the Ray Hawkey book covers for Len Deighton's first novels from the 'sixties. What do you think?

The reissues (10) - Berlin Game

Inspired by the recent newspaper headlines about the activities of (rather poor) Russian sleeper agents in the US, I have started to read again Deighton's trilogy of trilogies telling the story of the ultimate British sleeper agent operating secretly at the heart of the KGB.

Note - if you've not read the novels yet, don't read any further. Plot spoiler clues ahead!

The premise of Berlin Game is simple. Fiona Samson, high flyer in London Central (read MI:6), is married to one-time agent Bernard Samson. Charged with reassuring an unsettled group of agents operating deep in East Germany, he starts to uncover a trail of threads which suggest a mole operating at the heart of British overseas intelligence. And the trails lead eventually to Fiona, who had been operating for six years under the perfect cover: wife of one of the department's most effective and loyal agents.

Fiona Samson was arguably the first and most impactful female spy lead character - though the books are narrated by Bernard Samson, in her intricate eventual involvement in all aspects of the plot Fiona is very much a pivotal character (as revealed in the sixth novel of the series). Giving the lie to the adage that male writers don't generally write good female characters, Deighton's skills at dialogue and creating liveable, believable characters with a well-developed hinterland mean Fiona Samson is utterly compelling as the partner and, at the denouement of this first novel in the series, evident puppet master of her husband's mis-firing career as the extent of her treachery is revealed. All of the supporting characters seem tailor-made for their roles: Tessa, Fiona's sister, the tart with a heart who's innocence is her undoing; Dicky Cruyer, Bernard's manager whose office politics smarts ensure he's promoted beyond his skills, if not his cunning; Bret Rensselaer, the suave American anglophile who Bernard suspects of having an affair with Fiona but who - we learn later - is connected to her in a far more dramatic - and unimaginable - way.

In coming back to this book after a couple of years, what shines through is the rich dialogue, which is the key to driving along the character development and maintaining a pacey plot which does not however read as over-hurried. With Bernard Samson as narrator, the reader gets a perspective on the operation of British overseas intelligence which - as he or she discovers by book six in the series - is definitely shot through the filter of Samson's own prejudices and failings. But I prefer it that way: Samson is an everyman character doing a job for which few are suited. For anyone used to working in an office environment, as I am, his healthy cynicism and distrust of colleague's and management's motives is understandable, particularly when these colleagues and managers are responsible for Bernard's security.

The new introduction
The Game, Set and Match trilogy of trilogies is definitely an ensemble piece, despite eight of the nine books being narrated by the main character, Bernard Samson. With nine books to work with, Deighton had time and space to let characters grow, develop and evolve over a significant time period, sometimes shocking the reader in the unexpected turns their lives take or in the revelations of their past lives:

"The prospect of planning and writing  so many books using the same characters (each of them aging and changing) was both attractive and daunting. They would grow older; perhaps wiser, or perhaps more foolish, or bitter. They would suffer setbacks and ailments; delight, sudden death and despair. And in fiction, as in real life, there was no going back. An inconvenient death in book number three was not something I could rectify in book number four. For all those reasons the writing of Berlin Game, the first book, required more preparatory work than any of the subsequent ones. Here were the people - the foundation - upon which the Bernard Samson stories would be built and balanced."

The intriguing plot twist that Deighton selected for Berlin Game - after some long consideration and always envisaged as part of a trilogy - was to have a spy story in which the wife played a significant role alongside the husband, a combination of the domestic and espionage worlds. He points out in this new introduction that the idea of introducing a strong feminine lead character (not something he'd done up to this point) developed out of a nagging feeling of regret that in Goodbye Mickey Mouse he hadn't made more of the love affair between the main character and his British girlfriend.

In identifying the story arc largely with Berlin, was Deighton unusually prescient in understanding the internal dynamics of the East German economy and political system which would - ultimately - lead to its internal collapse at the first signs of Soviet withdrawal from the East? Certainly, Deighton's frequent visits to East Berlin had clearly revealed to him early signs of a regime built on unsustainable promises and a brutal lie at the heart of it:

"Anyone who spent much time in Berlin's Eastern sector - and the Zone too - could not fail to see that Germany's communist regime was shaky, although shaky regimes repressive enough sometimes continue for a long time. I certainly had no dates in mind but, as I have depicted in the books, there was a weakening of resolve and the regime was becoming more impoverished every day. Fundamentally agricultural, with no exports worth consideration, and a middle class with no income worth taxing, the DDR was a living corpse."

And death, decay and chaos always provides a skilful writer with a fascinating canvas on which to portay a literary vision! In these books, Berlin is the stand-out character. It was then a schizophrenic city, isolated, a magnet for the world's espionage agents and draft drop-outs, whose horizons were always darkened by the clouds of its Nazi past. But its character shone through in characters like Lisl Hennig and Rolf Mauser. Berlin Game takes the reader on a long but satisfying journey that reveals as much about the origins of an epoch of fundamental change in European history as it does the frailty of human and professional relationships.

The new design
There he is on the front cover: Bernard Samson. Or at least, Arnold Schwartzman's new interpretation of Samson. But is it him? Do readers, as I do, detect a throwback to Deighton's first great character [Harry Palmer, as was] in the tortoiseshell spectacles?

Samson's behind the Berlin Wall. It's an obvious starting point for any designer considering Berlin to draw upon the Wall, but the designer also had a personal reason for its inclusion. As Schwartzman writes:

"In November 1989, my wife Isolde and I had the pleasure of being in the German capital at the fall of the Berlin Wall, where I photographed many images of young and old citizens chipping away at the Wall. Along with these I photographed a number of versions of 'Berlin' that had been spray-painted on the wall's surface, as well as the signboard at 'Checkpoint Charlie'. There can have been no more potent symbol of division, or barrier, than the Berlin Wall and it would always be a perfect visual representation of the city of Berlin, where so much of this story takes place.

As Len Deighton's protagonist, Bernard Samson, penetrates beyond the Wall into the Eastern sector I thought I would cut a door into the Wall to symbolise his furtive activities."

This aspect of the design works well, as does Schwartzman's decision to spell out - across the spines of all nine planned reissued volumes in the series - Bernard Samson's name in torn stubs from old-style airline baggage tags. It will look intriguing on a bookcase.

However, I'm torn. I've read these books so many times that I've already built up a solid picture in my mind of what Bernard Samson is like and ... well ... he's not like the picture on the front cover! He's older, certainly; a little more rough-hewn around the edges. So, maybe this aspect doesn't work for me, rather in the way that the first edition covers of Faith, Hope and Charity - which featured photographic images representing key characters - sought to add a visual element to these much-loved characters.

Nevertheless, the design coherency across Berlin Game, Mexico Set and London Match (which I'll blog about at some point soon) is impressive and a worthwhile successor the famous Raymond Hawkey jacket illustrations on Deighton's first four books.

Harper Collins reissues more books - front cover previews

Good news! Harper Collins has just released the next tranche of Len Deighton reissues in time for Father's Day next month. I'm hoping to get review copies for each of the new edition and will post up reviews when I have them. Assuming they follow the same format as the earlier reissues, the books will each have a new foreword by Deighton plus comments by Arnold Schwartzman the designer about the new covers.

In this reissue are Berlin Game, Mexico Set and London Match, plus Winter. Intriguingly, there's a new title called Len Deighton's French Cooking for Men, which is clearly a reworking of his title Ou est le Garlic? from 1965, repackaged to appeal to a younger male audience by linking the rugged world of spying and cooking, something which was apparent in the film of The Ipcress File and in Deighton's Action Cook Book.

The other front cover images are below. They're certainly different from the earlier styles. They include a real-life representation of - one assumes - the Bernard Samson character. It's a brave design choice, and I'm unsure how readers will react. When Faith, Hope and Charity were published in the nineties - the last three of the Samson nonology - they had photo images representative of the main characters. This meant the image the reader had built up his of each character in their minds was challenged. Readers don't always like that, as imagination is what makes the reading experience powerful. That said, the cover images are striking.

What I also detect in these front cover images is a throwback to the first and perhaps most famous Deighton novels, those with the Harry Palmer character. The tortoiseshell glasses the model is wearing hark back to the Michael Caine character of old; perhaps HC are hoping the reader makes the connection too? However, of course, Bernard Samson is not Harry Palmer. He's of a different era; older, he's more careworn, he has a different backstory. That's the beauty of the character: while he shared some underlying characteristics, he was something fresh: the spy with a family, the spy as bureaucrat, employee, dupe and loyal friend.

Let's see what the reaction is.

Matt Lynn selects his choice of great British thrillers

Up on the excellent The Browser website, in its Five Books selection - which invites authors to select the best reading in their field of interest - thriller and military action novelist and ghost-writer Matt Lynn selects his choice of the five best thrillers.

His choices would correspond to many a top five list from readers with a keen interest in British spy and political thrillers. He cites Eric Ambler, Frederick Forsyth and Hammond Innes in his top five books.

Also there is Len Deighton's Berlin Game, which Lynn says is the best Cold War thriller he's read. He also makes an interesting observation about the espionage thriller as the extension of the 'politics' of the office:

"All spy fiction is really an extended metaphor for the office. No character captures that better than Bernard Samson, a middle-ranking intelligence executive, who can’t trust anyone."

I haven't come across The Browser before but it's an excellent news aggregation website packed full of the best writing from around the world selected by its editorial team. Well worth a look.