Spycraft and spy writers

I recently found online this interesting essay on Len Deighton's spy craft, which reflects on Deighton's position within the canon of UK spy fiction. While he's often placed alongside John Le Carre and Ian Fleming as part of the 'big three' of UK spy fiction - perhaps soon to be joined in a big four by Mick Herron, of Slough House fame, but that's another story altogether - the author of this essay foregrounds the point that in his portrayal of spy craft in his fiction, the fact that of the three Deighton was the only one who was not a spy makes its presence felt in his storytelling, and so marks him out as something different.

As does, of course, the fact that unlike the other two authors in this triumvirate, he didn't attend public school and was assuredly working class in his upbringing. None of this is really new, but this essay I think encapsulates well how these social and career differences manifest themselves in Deighton's writing, particularly in his two most famous creations, the unnamed spy who became Harry Palmer, and Bernard Samson. Both, for example, are recognised as unreliable narrators for the reader, which creates tension and ambiguity when reading the books, given that everything being said my turn out not to be one hundred per cent accurate.

"Deighton’s hero is an unreliable narrator whose commentaries should be sifted, not readily accepted. It isn’t that he deliberately sets out to hoodwink or misdirect us, rather that his outlook is hampered by blind spots. His entirely subjective account prevents him from presenting the whole picture or conveying the exact truth. Anomalies and distortions arise. As Deighton once explained: ‘What happens in The IPCRESS File (and in all my other first-person stories) is found somewhere in the uncertainty of contradiction.’ This makes for stimulating reading."

Not a new insight, but this essay explores well how the author makes the most of this.

With Len Deighton rather having fallen out of public consciousness since the turn of the century - not surprising, perhaps, given his advanced age and non-release of any new fiction during this period - essays and evaluations of his writing are now seen sparingly in the UK media and online generally, so when something like this essay does crop up, it's interesting to see if the author has any new perspectives to offer on often familiar traits.

Duck confit, anyone?

To paraphrase Franz Zappa (who's often credited with the original quote), writing about food is like dancing about architecture. 

Food is to be savoured, tasted, smelled, talked over. 

But, in the right hands, food writing can certainly be entertaining and offer up new insights into something we all do, and enjoy.

Len Deighton - primary subject of this blog and website - as well as being a spy fiction author and historian is, famously, a long-standing writer on the epicurian arts.

A pioneer, indeed, in some respects - his 'cookstrips' were regarded as something of a revolution in the somewhat staid world of food writing in the 'sixties, but seemed to set the tone for the decade and, with the Action Cook Book, it's often said that he helped give men permission to enter the kitchen, and have fun.

In this new book I've just found - file it under books I didn't know were out there, but when I found out about it, I felt compelled to collected - there's a short but fun contribution from the author recounting his experiences with food, from cooking with his mother (who was herself a domestic cook), to eating in Paris' finest restaurants when he hit the big time as an author.

The book is a first edition of Great Dishes from the British Gastronomic Academy, edited by Allan Hall and with a foreword by the famous food critic Egon Ronay, published in the UK in 1988.

As chronicled on this blog, over half a lifetime of collecting Mr Deighton's books, I've got copies of all of his food-related books - the famous, and the more obscure.

This book came out of left-field - as ephemera and rare books by authors often do, from time to time - and I snapped it up for a very reasonable price (courtesy of the ever reliable Adrian Harrington Rare Books). Since purchasing it, I have seen that a paperback edition seems subsequently to have been produced.

For a 120 page book, there are only three pages of contributions by Deighton. Two pages - with a charming duck illustration - and a recipe for pressed duck, with attendant wine notes.

The autobiographical details shared in this book don't add a lot more granularity to tales that the author has recounted in his other cookbooks, or in magazine and news articles, but they are nonetheless interesting and well written.

He writes about being a teenager in Paris after the War and staying in a garret room at the top of a very small hotel near the station, his base from which to discover the city's food.

"Now I was in Paris", he writes, "I knew I had to go to the most famous restaurant in the world: La Tour d'Argent. (I don't know Paris' restaurants, but it sounds suitably grand for the 'sixties!). There, he ordered pressed duck, and was greeted by a sad look from the waiter. 

He writes: "He whispered, as if saving me from the humiliating consequences of my ignorance, that the pressed duck I wanted was only served to two people. To cut the duck in half for one person was not possible... I understood. I was devastated but decided that desperate situations call for desperate measures. 'I'll have two portions', I said".

And, he did, and the author goes on to recount his tale of that first dish in Paris, which arguably influenced his later passion for French Food, which he then wrote about in numerous successful cookbook. And, he writes in the book, he still has the numbered card given by the restaurant to patrons who eat this magnificent dish.

For readers who wanted to recreate that dish, like other contributors to the book Deighton enlisted the help of young London chef Prue Leith (now of Bakeoff fame, of course) to share the full recipe ingredients and cooking instructions.

A great little find and, like some of my best finds as a book collector, a smashing surprise which I shall shelve with great pleasure alongside my other Deighton cookbooks.

Happy 93rd Birthday, Len

 ... for yesterday (I forgot to post this up yesterday!).

On 18 February, Len Deighton celebrated his 93rd birthday, having been born in London - Marylebone to be exact - on that day in 1929.

Readers of his novels, his histories, and his cookbooks from around the world will I'm sure join the Dossier in sending good wishes to the author.

2022 is something of a marquee year for the author - next month, ITV broadcasts its lavish remake of The Ipcress File - and the year also marks the sixtieth anniversary of that novel's first publication in London - the first edition sold out almost on the first day, and has sold consistently well ever since, right up to last year's Penguin reissues.

Len Deighton in a 1983 publicity photo

Deighton up for Southwark Blue Plaque

View over Southwark

As an author, Len Deighton has often eschewed literary prizes and honours, believing his work speaks for itself.

But as someone born in London, who lived there during much of his early life until his career as an author really took off, he might appreciate a blue plaque there in his name.

The Southwark Blue Plaque scheme is currently seeking support for nominees for recipients to honour those who've lived in and contributed to the London Borough.

One of the nominees is Len Deighton, who lived in a flat in Southwark during the sixties and wrote many of his books while resident in the borough.

Dossier readers are welcome to add their support for the nomination.

It's not quite a new novel, but hey ....

The rather natty cover of Howdunit

Len Deighton is long into a well-deserved retirement - his last full novel was well over 25 years ago - but he still writes regularly and this week his first piece of published writing, at least that I'm aware of, since his 2012 James Bond e-book, has appeared.

It's a chapter in Howdunit, a new compendium by the members of the Detection Club. A masterclass of crime and thriller fiction from masters of the genre.

And the book as a whole is dedicated to Len, who, the reader is reminded, was first elected to membership of the Detection Club in 1969.

So, it's his fiftieth year of membership. He's their longest serving member.

How many of ever can say we've been a member of anything for fifty years or more?

So, what will you find in this book, which is sure to be catnip for spy fiction and thriller readers alike as well as hardened crime fines? 

Well, how about:

...Val McDermid, on letting the story be the driver...

...Ngaio Marsh on the value of great research to a story...

...John Le Carre on the joy of writing...

...and Ian Rankin on why crime fiction is good for you.

That's just a taste of what's available in this tome (and it's a book that feels weighty, hefty, and deserving of that title.

There are over 500 pages of content for a relatively modest £25 for the hardback limited edition.

So what of Len's contribution?

His chapter, fourteen pages long, is entitled: Different Books; Different Problems; Different Solutions.

Essentially, it is Len recounting his experiences as a writer of nearly sixty years. Sharing anecdotes (many familiar, some new) and passing on tips.

 For instance, The value of research in ensuring you get things right:

"I have abandoned three books halfway through and it is a miserable experience."

Ah. What might have been! He gives infomation about what they were:

• The well-known Vietnam-based story around fighter pilots
• An espionage story about an orchestra travelling behind the Iron Curtain
• A book about worldwide revolutionary movements, from the Bolsheviks and onwards.

The benefits of leaving paper behind and writing Bomber on his new IBM word processor in 1969, famously the first novel fully written on a Word Processor:

"Revisions, corrections and edits are always part of my writing process; and scribbling between the lines on typewritten pages, as well as cutting them up and rearranging paragraphs, kept me on my knee brandishing the glue pot."

The benefits of not wasting anything already started, and recycling it:

"Like most writers I begrudge wasted experience (even my abandoned revolution research was used in a South American locale for MAMista)."

The value of coincidence and happenstance to a writer in being able to bump into the spy fraternity and, one imagines, draw on their stories:

"Visiting a friend in HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs on a sunny day [who was that?] when visitors and inmates were gathered in the grassy interior lawn, I found George Blake, one of Russia's most successful agents, seated at the next table. Maxwell Knight of MI5 and Sir Maurice Oldfield, the head of MI6, were friends of friends. They were everywhere. One didn't have to look beyond our writing fraternity to find men who had worked in the service."

Overall, it's a neat insight into the life of a writer. 

Like many of the other authors in this book I suspect, writing about himself, and the process of writing, is I imagine something Len would happily exchange for writing about a character or a scene.

But for a reader, it's a way to understand the process and thinking behind the characters and situations which you have enjoyed over the years are given another facet, as the process of their creation is given just a little bit more detail.

If you read any sort of thriller fiction, there is plenty beyond simply Len Deighton's chapter in this book to raise your eyebrows and thumb your bookshelves.

 

Snippets from the Ripster

Lockdown's been an odd experience. Even as some restrictions ease, it's going to be an odd summer.

I recently received a nice message from author Mike Ripley - who's a long-standing friend of Len Deighton, and of the Dossier. Judging by the pic he shared, he's coping fine with lockdown!

Mike Ripley suffering through lockdown!

Mike - who writes the always excellent 'Getting Away with It' column in the online Shots magazine is a great source for all the latest news in crime and thriller fiction, pointed me in the direction of two recent homages, if you will, to Deighton's wok.

In his newspy story Hammer to Fall, John Lawton includes this scene:

The hero spy returning from a mission to Finland in 1966 goes to the home of his boss to find that the boss’ wife - a notoriously bad cook – has left ‘a nice little bourguignon on the hob’ for them. The spymaster boss tells our hero:

“Ever since she discovered Len Deighton’s Cookstrip she’s been unstoppable. Calls it cuisine à la spook … her shorthand for it is spy-fry.”

Nice pun!

And in Mike's own new book Mr Campion's Seance, a visiting Interpol agent is waiting for Campion at Scotland Yard. When Campion arrives he finds him surrounded by a pile of newspapers. The setting is November 1962:

‘Your English is as annoyingly good as it always was.’ Campion pointed to the pile of Evening Standard newspapers on the chair and leaned over to peruse the one open on the desk. ‘Is that your secret? A close reading of the juicy stories in London’s evening papers?’

‘Superintendent Luke kindly gave me yesterday’s issue to read whilst I was waiting and I discovered this wonderful serial, a new spy story called The Ipcress File. I simply had to know what had gone before and one of the constables found me copies of last week’s papers. It is really very good; you should read it.’

‘Are you sure it’s fiction? Our newspapers seem to be uncovering spy stories every week these days.’

‘This story reads like it is true, but it is fiction. The paper says there will be a book soon.’

Mike tells me he sent Len a copy of my book which (he said) he enjoyed, and told him about the John Lawton reference. He emailed Mike back: ‘How nice to hear that I am not forgot.’

Indeed.

A Deighton online miscellany round-up

The Internet offers an endless cornucopia of good stuff, if you can find it.

Once in a while, I do a Google search using "Len Deighton" to see what new articles are out there about the author; what rare items and collectables are up for auction in the global market place for rare books; and sometimes, to see frankly if there are interesting snippets of information and opinion I might have missed related to the author and his works.

This post is the result of one such search. It's a trawl with my virtual dragnet of various things Deighton-related which readers of this blog might find interesting. So, here goes.

• An interesting article from last month in CrimeReads, in which author Timothy Jay Smith compares contemporary Cold War fiction with classics from the genre; he draws no firm conclusions, but rather highlights some top picks readers may not be familiar with
• An article from 2015 by Len, which I'd not seen before, for the 4th Estate magazine, in which he discusses the creation of his famous cookstrips. He plots a familiar path, but there are some added details here which I'd not read before and which add new wrinkles to understanding this design classic
• 2014's Eye magazine also ran a feature on the cookstrips - Fry like a Spy - that is pretty comprehensive ... and gives a shout out to the Deighton Dossier which I hadn't seen before!
• This digitised article from the New York Times archives is from 1981 - it's a short profile of the author, then 52 years old, published on the occasion of the US release of his novel XPD. Perhaps the most interesting element is his recollection of stalled plans for a novel about Vietnam, which ended up as a short story instead in Declarations of War
• A blog post by British writer Steve Newman, on the Medium website, about The Ipcress File - the 'novel that got away', in which he recounts how his (now valuable) first edition of the novel was taken by a childhood friend .... and never returned! Moral? Never lend your books out without good reason
• This portrait of the author if from the National Gallery's archives, and is from 1990, right in the middle of his most active period of writing, with the Samson ennealogy
• A less-than-warm review of Spy Sinker and Spy Line by blogger Sarah Rhiannon Ward
• From 1987's Washington Post, a thorough but rather luke warm review of Winter, the Samson prequel novel, by reviewer Elizabeth Ward, who mourns that the novel lacks some of the cheeky narrative of Deighton's early novels
• A review from the Bitter Tea and Mystery blog site from 2012 of the same two novels. Nothing earth shattering, but readers opinions of books are always worth a look, if for nothing else to compare and contrast with one's own
• A 1985 review of London Match US first edition in the New York Times, in which the reviewer raises concerns that the trilogy plot, concluded in this book, lacked a certain catharsis for the reader
• A lengthy review of 1996's Charity, the last Samson novel, on the Books & Books blog site
• A paean to the cookstrips from The Independent in 2009 - on the occasion of the new edition to mark the author's eightieth birthday; this 1997 interview with Len from the same newspaper by Michael Bateman explores in more depth his passion for food and cooking
• A short piece on Len Deighton's book cover art - which pleasingly links to the relevant page on the Deighton Dossier - from the That's How the Light Gets In blog 

Anyway, have a gander and see if you find something of interest. If you spot any interesting Deighton-book related articles out there on the Internet that blog readers might find interesting, put a link in the comments!

Happy 90th Birthday, Len Deighton, from your readers

[Card courtesy of reader Peter Ashley]

Anyone born in 1929 - as Len Deighton was, 90 years ago today (18 February) - has experienced a world of unprecedented cultural, social and technological change: the war to end all wars; the end of colonlialism and the subsequent turbulence of numerous civil wars; the Cold War that followed the dropping of the most powerful weapon ever created; the rise of China and the ending of the Communist experiment; pax Americana; unprecedented global economic growth; consumerism; the dawn of the information age and the global connectivity of the Internet.

Through over five decades of writing, give or take, Len Deighton has documented many of these changes.

It seemed appropriate, as Deighton’s success ultimately has been determined by his readability and capacity to generate fantastic characters and stories, to ask other readers to share their thoughts on the question: What do Len Deighton’s books mean to you as a reader?

Read their thoughts, below:

Karl Gunnar Oen, Norway

"It would have been nice to say that this book sent me on a lifelong readership adventure. But no; in 1968 I was only nine years old and The Hardy Boys and Detective Nancy Drew were my favorites. At fourteen I came across a Norwegian edition of Bomber and I was hooked, and it proved to be for life.

Even in rural Norway, Deighton paperbacks were possible to acquire, and through struggling with his books I learned to appreciate the English language much more than the school system had taught me. I fondly remember reading Fighter while doing my military service, and devouring SS-GB as a student. Curiously, I held back on the Game, Set & Match trilogy, not taking it on until I was firmly established with a steady job and a wife. Then, I read the books in next trilogies as soon as they were published. I’m now on my third round of the Samson-novels, the first time I read it for the plot; the second time for the complexity of the relationships; this time around, the humour stands out. The books are so rich that I will certainly read them yet another time, as I have with most of the others.

The Nameless Spy, Colonel Stok, Pat Armstrong, Douglas Archer, Dicky Cruyer, Bernard and Fiona - and Werner: my reading life has been enriched through meeting them. The hours spent in their company, I would not have missed for the world.

Funeral in Berlin is my absolute favourite. Thank you, Mr Deighton!"


Jim Adams, Utah

"My late mother was an avid reader of fiction and, fortunately for me, owned all 10 books in the American first editions and passed them to me as she finished them. For that I’ll be forever grateful to her.

In one way I can especially identify with Bernard Samson. It’s an aspect of the series no one has mentioned yet, and I’ll try to explain with some background, if you’ll please indulge me. I served as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in northern Germany from 1968 to 1970, and after my mission I married a Berlinerin. My first mission assignment was in Spandau. 

When I was transferred to Hamburg six months later, I was shocked to hear how different the language sounded. I soon learned that what I’d picked up in Berlin was the distinctive dialect spoken in informal conversation all day, every day.

Like Bernard, I’ve been proud of my mastery of Berlinerisch lo these past 50 years, and I’ve been told by Berliners, including my wife, that my pronunciation is almost native. It somehow hurt my feelings too when Werner told his friend in Charity that his dialect wasn’t as good as he’d thought all along!

Bernard’s intimacy with Berlin, its language, its Stadtplan, its weather, the feeling of unease but also of adventure living in the divided city - an island of freedom in a sea of oppression - still resonates in my soul half a century later.

So for me, the magic of the books - beyond the wonderful characters, the intrigue, the almost prescient way the author weaves in a supposed MI-6 involvement in the eventual fall of the Wall - the thing that keeps me coming back to the series again and again is Bernard’s affection for Berlin and its brash, stubborn but deeply lovable people. I share with him a rich nostalgia for pre-Wende, post-war West Berlin.

It makes me rank the final page of Charity right up there with the last sentence of The Great Gatsby as one of noveldom’s supreme closings: that “perfect day long ago” when “the sky was blue and Berlin was heaven.”

Perhaps Fiona and Bernard are right - that happiness does come more often from memories than from the experiences that create them.

Thank you, Mr. Deighton, for memorializing the Berlin of my late adolescence in a way that I can return to any time simply by taking a book down from a shelf. You have my gratitude forever. And Happy 90th!"

Georgie Montmorency-Marchbanks, UK

"I first read the 1960s spy novels when I was thirteen (my school had first editions of The IPCRESS File and Funeral in Berlin in the library. Then I scoured secondhand bookshops for his other works. I assumed he'd not written anything novels since the 1970s; but then I discovered the Bernard Samson books, quite late in the day. Thereafter, I haunted the bookstores for each new instalment. I can vividly remember reading the ‘sixties novels as an adolescent: they had an electrifying effect on me.

You could say they changed my personality somewhat!"

Isyew, UK

"Dear Mr Deighton - that iconic photo of Michael Caine, trying to crack eggs to your satisfaction; you, poised with a raised wood spoon in your right hand, your left - hidden - poking the star as you tease him for his efforts. Wonderful!

I've come to appreciate how much your Samson series of books, in particular, influences my own debut novel. This strange desire to write mystery novels for people who prefer to read with their brains engaged is strong.

Had you as an author aspired to influence society, I'm sure you would have instructed lads like me to rise up in the world, and not simply be content to serve the likes of Dalby, Dawlish and Dicky Cruyer all our lives.

You presented us with muscular, frequently hilarious entertainment in your books and I, for one, am glad you did.

I love your impeccable research which underpins the credible words you create for your fictional characters - sharply drawn and tragi-comic in equal measure (as exemplified in the relationship between Bernard and Werner). I also enjoy what at first sight appear to be straight-line plots, but which offer up so much 'off screen' ambiguity.

You will always be to me a literary giant. Thank you."

Now, that's a biography!

I thought, ahead of Len's 90th birthday tomorrow, that I'd reproduce his biography which was included in the Penguin editions of Horse Under Water and Billion Dollar Brain. It's certainly one of the more obtuse author biographies you'll find, and - as most of it's true - a testament to a remarkably varied early life before he became a full-time author.

"Description - dark complexion, fourteen stone, six feet tall. Cruel, sardonic sense of humour. Large hands, stubby fingers used to punctuate rapid, neurotic speech. Bayonet scar palm right hand. Drinks warily, seldom smokes. 

Skills - extensive knowledge of military history, modern control systems, aircraft (especially helicopters), vehicles, weapons, tactics. Marksman; never hunts animals. Good cook. 

Experience - railway lengthman [DD - he used to work at Nine Elms], Piccadilly waiter, Madison Avenue adman, Vogue fashion artist, photographer RAF Mosquitos, manager Aldgate gown factory. Seen Vista-Vision blue films in pre-Castro Cuba, typhoon in Tokyo, hurricane passing New York. Given talk over Soviet radio. Once fell into Hong Kong harbour, fatty tissue saved him."

Now, that's a biography and a half, huh?

Len Deighton book montage

Len Deighton's output from 1962 - 1996

Thanks to Len's friend Edward Milward-Oliver - author of the Len Deighton Companion - who created this composite image of all the UK first editions written by Len Deighton since his career started with The Ipcress File in 1962.

A great visual testimony to the author's output, ahead of his ninetieth birthday tomorrow.

Follow this Twitter moment marking Len's upcoming 90th birthday.

The author running back to read the latest on the Deighton Dossier twitter feed

To mark Len Deighton's birthday on 18 February, I will post here and on the website an article gathering together both my thoughts and views and comments from other Deighton Dossier readers on the topic: 'what do Len Deighton's books mean to you as a reader?'

In the interim, if you are on Twitter do follow this Twitter Moment, which captures the regular tweets that have been going up containing snippets from some of his best-known books and reader responses to them, in the lead-up to 18 February

Share your thoughts ahead of Len Deighton's 90th birthday

The Deighton Dossier wants to hear from you!

Next month - 18 February, to be precise - Len Deighton, the English author whose various works this website discusses and celebates, will turn 90.

I want to mark this with special posts on this blog, the main Deighton Dossier website, linked to on the Facebook page and on Twitter.

But rather than just write my thoughts, I'd like to draw on the small but dedicated community of Deighton readers/watchers who follow this blog and the related social media sites, to create a true fan's perspective on Len Deighton, to mark this milestone birthday.

You can do that in two ways:

• Complete a simple, 3-question survey on Survey Monkey to find out - hopefully, in a definitive way - readers' favourite books
• Share your thoughts on what Deighton's books mean to you as a reader, by dropping an email to me at deightondossier AT icloud DOT com

The 'exam question' is simple - tell us:

What do Len Deighton's books mean to you as a reader?

That gives you plenty of scope to be creative and share thoughts with other readers in the Deighton-reading community, and the wider spy fiction community. 

I'd like to get as many inputs as possible. To keep things manageable, follow these guidelines:

• 250 words maximum
• Be concise and to the point
• Tell us your name (or if you'd prefer, initials) and your country e.g John Smith, Bulgaria, to be associated with your contribution

If, however, you have more to say, I am happy to also consider longer contributions from Deighton Dossier readers on this broad theme, which I can then add as separate posts on the blog and on social media.

Also, remember to use this hashtag on social media: #LenDeighton90

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!

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).

Happy 89th Birthday

89 today

On behalf of readers and fans of his work, the Deighton Dossier - set up to bring those people together online to celebrate and discuss Len Deighton's books - would like to wish the author a happy 89th birthday.

While long in retirement, and enjoying retirement with his family, children and numerous grandchildren, Deighton's influence on fiction and spy fiction in particular, still resonates. Every so often, one reads about one author or another being dubbed 'the new Deighton'. That's a great testament to the quality of the author's impact.

Readers of the Deighton Dossier raise a glass today and say: 'Happy Birthday'!

Deighton & Le Carré .... spy fiction titans cut from different cloth

(c) Tom Jamieson, New York Times

This recent New York Times profile of John Le Carré is part of the growing pre-launch hubbub surrounding his new novel A Legacy of Spies, which is launched in September with a live interview of the author at the Royal Festival Hall.

The fever pitch reflects renewed interest in Le Carré's fifty years plus career as a novelist of note, arguably the greatest spy fiction thriller writer. The success of the TV adaptation of The Night Manager in 2016 and the film adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, brought Le Carré's writing to a whole new generation.

While Le Carré's career has continued without pause since the end of the Cold War, by contrast Len Deighton's career has - since his last published novel Charity in 1996 - in effect trasnmuted into a well-deserved retirement (which he enjoys and which he evidently has no desire to leave). As such, their public - and online - profiles has gone in dramatically different directions over the last decade and more.

A contemporary of Len Deighton - Deighton is 88, Le Carré will soon be 86 - John Le Carré's life and writing career in a number of interesting ways contrasts with Deighton's.

What's the correct term for a group of spy writers?

Not a murder, or a gaggle. A 'briefing' of spy writers, perhaps, or a ... perhaps .... 'dossier of spy writers? Any ideas?

Why am I asking?

This great article on the Spy Writers blog reminds us that it's 33 years ago this week when Len Deighton, HRF Keating, Eric Ambler, Ted Allbeury, John Le Carré and Frederick Forsyth gathered for lunch at the Savoy. The occasion was a surprise 75th birthday for Ambler hosted by Len Deighton.

What a conversation there must have been around the table that day! Think about the collection of spy fiction classics that those around the table have shared with the world. A round table of spy fiction knights, if you will.

Wonder what the cake looked like!

__________

On other matters, Waterstones Gower Street in London is holding a number of events under the 'Summer of Spies' theme, with guest speakers talking about all manner of spy fiction themes. On 29 August they are hosting one on The Ipcress File.

More information is available here.

The week before, writer Mike Ripley - of Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang fame, which has just been published - will be talking about the golden age of British thriller books. More information here.

New profile of Len Deighton in Mail, part of SS-GB hullaboo

Amidst all the online Twitter hubbub over alleged mumbling in SS-GB on BBC1, there's been a significant upsurge in coverage of both the series and the author of the book on which it is based, Len Deighton.

The Deighton Dossier spoke briefly a while back to Nicole Lampert who writes for the Daily Mail, and her short profile article on Len Deighton was in the paper yesterday and is up on the newspaper's website, here. She has alighted on the 'mysterious, reclusive' author angle which, while cliched, isn't all that inaccurate - the author does value his privacy highly.

I'm pleased she used some of the information on the website I pointed her to as part of her research, and the Mail's picture library has clearly dug deep to find some new pictures of Len to illustrate the article.

Many Happy Returns to Len ....

Today is Len Deighton's 87th birthday. On behalf of all the readers of this blog, and readers around the world who still enjoy all his works, I say a heart "Happy Birthday" to Len and wish him well.

Though in retirement, Len's keeping very busy and still writing every day and enjoying life. Given Len's prolific output these last 50 years and more, that happy retirement is well deserved.

Choose your theme....

I had lunch with Len yesterday, who was on good form. No major news regarding the various film projects where rights have been obtained and development is, supposedly starting - Horse Under Water, SS-GB, Bomber (16 years of rights held, no progress) and the Game, Set and Match triple trilogy. However, interesting hints from Len around the production of SS-GB.

More broadly, he's agreed to do another QandA session with questions from readers and members of the Deighton Dossier blog and Facebook page.

As readers will know, over the years Len's been kind enough to do four online interviews, answering readers' questions. This will be the fifth of these.

What I want to do this time is run a QandA with a theme, and ask members to come up with questions around that theme.

So, first thought - what would be a good overall theme for the next QandA?

Please share your ideas below. I'll then put out a request for questions, and we'll go from there. 

Some first ideas from me:

• Characters - inspirations, favourites, approach
• Technology - influence on story ideas, details, plot usage
• The writing process - approach, tricks, failures
• Making movies - the directors, behind the scenes, the stars