Another Ersatz-Bond announced ...

Not freshly ground

Is a Mini Cooper built by BMW, still an authentic mini? What about one of Damien Hirst's spin pictures, created by an artistic assistant - should we still regard that as 'by' the artist, even though he had no involvement in its creation? Or - conversely - can an idea, a character, an image exist independently - flourish, even - away from the source of its original inception?

This question of authenticity in art occurred to me on reading the news that William Boyd has been announced as the next author to follow in the footsteps of Kingsley Amis and John Gardner (see the previous post) and write a new James Bond novel. Boyd has, according to this excellent retrospective on Bond authors in the Daily Telegraph by Allan Massie, promised to take 007 back to his "classic" roots. It is curious to note that the James Bond character has now outlived his original creator, Ian Fleming, and that there are more ersatz-Bond books than were ever written by the first author. Some, indeed, might argue that many of the books written after Fleming's death have been of better quality - literary speaking - than much of Fleming's output.

However, is Bond - as imagined by Jeffrey Deaver, Amis, Gardner or Boyd the same Bond which Fleming imagined, or the same Bond which thousands of film fans believe in, many of whom will not have read any of the original novels? To what extent now does Bond exist as a character outside of his origins? Does he remain authentic when different authors have chosen to place him in different time periods, change key characteristics of his life, give him new enemies to fight, even - and this caused much media hubbub over the last week with news that Heineken has secured the licensing rights - a new favourite tipple?

It would seem to be the case. Bond has become a recognisable cultural prism through which the anxieties, preoccupations and obsessions of different cultural periods in western society are shot - he is a cinematic and literary mirror of what makes popular culture tick. In terms of enemies, he has taken on at various times the Soviets, global megalomaniacs, international criminals, the mujahadeen, and media moguls all intent on global domination, and all proxies for global sources of tension and fear which have shaped our society at different times. His car has changed as our tastes and auto technologies have shifted; the era of storytelling has moved back and forward in decades; his patterns of speech, the styles of the narrative, has waxed and waned; his love life has all proved mutable.

And yet, Bond is still Bond. He retains the classic evidence of a permanent fixture in the cultural firmament: the one-word moniker. The style, the insouciance is there. The gadgets remain, and are brought up to date. The fantasy, irrespective of the author, still appeals.

Clearly, this is what has kept Bond in the national consciousness while Harry Palmer or Bernard Samson, to some degree, have faded over time - the power of renewal and re-birth to add new life to a character, to give lustre and newness. Readers do not seem to mind that the character is now steered and guided by a different pilot every so often: the style of the journey remains consistently satisfying in most cases. And there is still a recognisable red line back to Fleming's original story.

Here's the question: could Harry Palmer be so easily re-imagined by another author? We can see already evidence that might suggest, 'no': the lacklustre films Bullet to Beijing and Midnight in St.Petersburg were not a great tribute to the original character - even with the same character - as part of an attempt to re-tool Harry for a post Cold-War age.

Is the management of Bond's character by other author's successful precisely because Fleming's writing, in parts, was lacklustre? That his character was more than the sum of the written parts, that he has a life outside of his original creator? Whatever the reason, there's something about Bond that has created a cultural phenomenon which, conceivably, could keep being re-imagined into perpetuity.

New reissues of James Bond novels by John Gardner ....

Readers of this blog and Len Deighton's work are often also readers of other spy fiction - in particular the James Bond series. The name of John Gardner should be familiar to them.

Following Ian Fleming's death, his estate permitted the writing of books using the James Bond character by other writers. Famous amongst these was Gardner, and I've been alerted to an internet presence for this author online. Gardner, a successful author of over fifty books, is highly regarded by Bond readers as one of the authentic inheritors of the Fleming mantle, with such stories as Nobody Likes Forever and Win, Lose or Die. He was also a good friend of Len Deighton.

To quote from the biography on the website:

"In the early ’60s he wrote a series of highly acclaimed comic novels featuring a cowardly secret agent called Boysie Oakes, before moving on to more serious books: particularly those featuring Big Herbie Kruger - an outstanding fictional character of the Cold War. In the early eighties however he was invited by Ian Fleming’s literary copyright holders to write a series of continuation James Bond novels which proved to be so successful, world wide, that instead of the contracted three books he went on to publish some fourteen titles, plus two from screenplays.

In all, Gardner had fifty-three novels to his credit – many of them best-sellers and Maestro was notably a New York Times Book of the Year. Day of Absolution published in 2001 was his first book for six years, following a serious battle with cancer. He followed this with a new character that appeared with the publication of Bottled Spider in the Spring of 2001 – Suzie Mountford a Woman Detective Sergeant working in London during World War II. A further four Mountford books were to follow and a sixth was planned. Just before his death in 2007, Gardner finally completed the long awaited third novel in his Moriarty trilogy."

His son has got in touch with The Deighton Dossier to point out that new editions of his father's works have recently been published by Orion, with new cover jackets. Find out more on the John Gardner website. I've added the website to the list of useful links and would encourage Deighton Dossier reader to click on the link and check out this excellent, well-designed site.

Keep your eyes 'peeled' ... new Ipcress File found!

It seems that the fiftieth anniversary of The Ipcress File is stimulating creativity among readers and film fans alike. Turning up on YouTube recently is this effort, re-imagining The Ipcress File using ... vegetables!

The budget looks to be about £4.56, but nevertheless the film-makers make a good effort at capturing the feel of the original film. File under 'Internet curios', I think.

"Harry Palmer is a winner, who comes on like a loser" - The Ipcress File interview with Len Deighton - a Deighton Dossier exclusive!

This interview is © Pluriform 2012 and The Deighton Dossier. It must not be reproduced in any form without express permission of the author and the website owner.

Len Deighton, London, March 2012
(c) Rob Mallows

This quote is actually from Michael Caine, the actor who’s brilliant portrayal of Harry Palmer helped sealed into the public consciousness the character of Len Deighton’s ‘unnamed spy’ who first appears in The Ipcress File, published 50 years ago this year and in print ever since. This book marked a definite literary turning point when it came out at the height of the Cold War.

It is arguably one of the twentieth century’s top spy thrillers, marking as it did a new step forward in the fictional portrayal of the spy game. Palmer was a phenomenon, a working class spy hero who ushered in one of the golden ages of British spy fiction.

Published only nine years after Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel Casino Royale, and only one year after John Le Carré’s debut Call for the Dead, The Ipcress File provided a counterpoint. The main character was from Burnley, a bit of a crook by all accounts, rough around the edges, a gourmet, plagued by his toff bosses and always needing his chit signed - a contrast to the debonair style and high living James Bond and the middle-aged, middle class bureaucrat that was George Smiley. Here was the spy as careerist, for whom petty paperwork is as much a part of everyday working life as holstering a pistol.

Over lunch in March 2012 and subsequently via an email conversation, Len Deighton kindly answered a range of questions about his book suggested by readers of the Deighton Dossier and me, the editor. He talks about the writing process for the book, his reasons for choosing the main plot device, his thoughts on the movie version and the influence of his Soho life as a young artist on key aspects of the film

Bond back in business ....

Interesting snippet of news from the world of publishing. Two years on from Harper Collins' decision to re-publish all of Len Deighton's fiction works, Ian Fleming's back catalogue of James Bond stories is to be relaunched.

The estate for Ian Fleming has signed a10-year deal with Random House to publish the books in print and e-book format. I imagine these will become collectables in their own time.

Next year will be the sixtieth anniversary of Ian Fleming's first Bond novel, Casino Royale, and one would image that there will be additional edition and a whole shed-load of Bond paraphernalia.

Check out the story on the BBC news website.

Greys and browns ...

Sir Ken Adam at The Museum of London

That was the colour palette which Ken Adam, production director, chose for Harry Saltzman's The Ipcress File to reflect the dreariness and earthy nature of 'sixties London and provide a counterpoint to the glamour of Bond.

This was just one of the anecdotes shared by Sir Ken Adam OBE in his talk before a special showing of the film as part of the Museum of London in Docklands' regular monthly film screenings.

Now a sprightly 91 years old, Ken shared his remembrances with over 70 people assembled in one of the former dockside warehouses now surrounded by the modernity of 'Docklands'. Already having worked to great esteem on Cubby Broccolli's sets for Dr. No and Goldfinger, Ken was brought onto The Ipcress File by Harry Saltzman to create "a poor man's Bond". But Ken and director Sidney Furie had a different creative approach, and fought the notoriously short-tempered Saltzman to film the movie for what it was, rather than what it wasn't.

One of the secrets of the film, Sir Ken said, was that 95% of it was filmed entirely on location, much of it in one of the grand buildings on Hobart Square, near to Victoria Station. This was a new experience for him, but what it allowed him to do was to emphasise the "greys and browns" of everyday London office life. The building on Hobart Square was used not just for Dalby's offices (the cleaning agency front) but to create Michael Caine's flat, and Colonel Ross's office. This move away from the traditional studio apparently caused friction, not least with the producer.

Harry Saltzman was insistent that Major Dalby's offices should be full of the latest computers and monitoring equipment. In contract, Ken Adam and Sidney Furie felt that the offices should have an authentic military feel - desk, camp bend, desk lamp, gas fire, and a bust of Churchill. This bare look was more barrack room than nerve centre, deliberately so. Yet later in the day Saltzman arrived on set with a truck full of computers, determined to have his way. Cue his breaking into an almighty temper, accusing Adam of trying to destroy the relationship with his director. The film unit, Ken said with a wry smile on his face, "loved these rows". Two hours later, it was all forgotten by the producer.

Sid Furie's lead cameraman on the set was Otto Heller, a Czech photographer and camera man who was old enough to have filmed the funeral of the last Habsburg Emperor, Franz Josef, Ken revealed. He never used a light meter and was the person responsible for many of the classic shots through keyholes and over Harry Palmer's shoulder. Apparently, while a perfectionist Heller never bothered to look at the final cut of the film. Ken called him "one of the greats".

Sitting in a converted warehouse in Docklands, Ken recalled how he used a warehouse nearby to film the sequences in 'Albania'. Furie, a Canadian, was not that experienced but outside on location, he had bags of energy and enthused the whole team to think creatively and embrace the cliched shots for which everyone remembers the film. In fact, they gave the film Adam believed the unique atmosphere that has made it a classic.

I asked him about the role of Len Deighton on the film. He revealed that Deighton was around on set and did share his views on the relationship to the story in the book. More practically, he was - famously - on the set of Harry Palmer's kitchen and taught Michael Caine how to crack eggs with one hand (though Caine eventually left it to Deighton to do this and it is his hands which appear in the final film!).

Having worked on both Bond and the "anti-Bond", Adam shared some interesting perspectives on the two. During a break in filming, Adam and Michael Caine went to the Bahamas, where Bond was filming, but Cubby Broccoli apparently would not allow Caine on the set alongside Sean Connery [perhaps, like when matter and anti-matter are combined, the space-time continuum would split!]. When filming had finished, that year Ken was invited to both Saltzman's and Broccoli's tables at the Bafta awards - both had booked the biggest tables in the venue. Cubby was sure that Adam would win him a Bafta for his work on Goldfinger - instead, he got it for Ipcress File. Cue stormy looks from Broccoli, who didn't talk to Ken for the next two months.

Having been warmed up with a view from one of the key creative forces behind The Ipcress File, I saw the film in a new light. And it is still a London classic!

What am I bid? .......

Tempted?

Part of the fun of collecting a particular author's book is hunting down the hard-to-find editions. Many of Len Deighton's early works are now in that category; as posted on this blog, even Len himself has revealed that he doesn't have a copy of the first edition of his first book, The IPCRESS File!

Well, there's an opportunity for collectors to get hold of some of the most collectable of Len's works. A blog reader and collector - who has one of the best collections of Len Deighton books I know of - is now selling the collection to raise funds. On 20th March, Chiswick Auctions is holding an auction of books and manuscripts. Lots 23-31 will be of interest to blog readers, including first editions in immaculate condition of The IPCRESS File, Horse Under Water, Funeral in Berlin and Billion-Dollar Brain, as well as copies of other sought-after books.

Do check out the auction. Such great copies don't come around very often, so it's worth perhaps taking a punt!

Lunch with Len ...

Len Deighton, Koffman's London
March 2012
(c) Rob Mallows

Last Saturday I was fortunate to catch up with Len Deighton over lunch at Koffman's in London's Knightsbridge.

We covered a lot of bases in a conversation over lunch lasting four hours at which we were joined by Len's wife Ysabele and his friend and fellow author Mike Ripley, contributor to Shot's magazine.

Len's in semi-retirement and gave little indication of working on any new fiction; no news either sadly on his histories of the aero engine and the fountain pen, which were with his editor.

Our conversation covered a range of bases. We discussed The Ipcress File, and Len shared a couple of anecdotes: When it came out in 1962, due to his publisher's lack of foresight, the 4,000 first editions sold out so quickly that when Len himself went into a WH Smith to pick up a copy it was sold out! And, surprisingly I thought, he told me he doesn't currently own a first edition of the book himself!

The most interesting story came when Ysabele, Len's wife, confirmed that Erik van Hazelhof, was the famous Dutch agent, whose story was filmed as the film The Soldier of Orange (Len had written the foreword to his second biography). Ysabele says that he took part in the raid which was the inspiration for one of the most famous Bond scenes, in Goldfinger.

I made some notes during our discussion but rather than 'grill' Len over lunch with questions, he's agreed to respond via email to a series of questions I'll put, which I'll then publish on the blog in the same way I did last year (see menu options above). Given it's the 50th anniversary of it's publication, I'm going to ask him a number of Ipcress File questions. If you have any Ipcress File-related questions, do drop an email soon to me through the blog!

Ipcress File arrives in London's Docklands ...

Sir Ken Adam OBE

... thanks to the Museum of London. Rachel Crossley, the Museum's events manager, has got in touch with the Deighton Dossier about a special presentation of the film of The Ipcress File, startrng - of course - Michael Caine as Harry Palmer, the 'unnamed spy' in Len's book, who is on the trail of disappearing nuclear scientists who are apparently under the control of the mysterious 'Jay'.

As blog readers will know, the film is a classic, and one of the best features of the film is the way that it authentically presents a grimy but vibrant London in the 1960s. The style of the film is immediately recognisable, and one of the elements contributing to that is the set design. As part of Friday's screening in London's Docklands, Sir Ken Adam - the set designer on the original film - will be there to give an introductory talk. Anyone with even a passing interest in the film is encouraged to pop along to the Museum's Docklands branch and check out this special event.

Here are the details:
The Ipcress File, Friday 9 March, 7-9.15pm

Tickets £7 (concs £5) Book tickets online or via the Box Office on 020 7001 9844

For more information about the Museum's programme, go to their website.

Induction of psycho-neuroses by conditioned reflex under stress ...

.... or as it's better known, IPCRESS. This year is the fiftieth anniversary of The IPCRESS File, Len Deighton's first book, and this blog will be posting some articles through the year under the theme "Ipcress at 50".

But meanwhile, an eagle-eyed blog reader Craig Arthur spotted an interesting online interview in the blog Money into Light with Norman Wanstall, the sound editor on The Ipcress File film who was also extensively involved in sound production on the early Bond films.

Wanstall clearly had a good time creating those eerie spaced out sounds to which 'Harry Palmer' is subjected to when apparently captured by enemy agent Jay in Hungary (Albania in the film):

"Of all the films I’d worked on, IPCRESS FILE, was my favourite. It was a highly stylised spy drama, brilliantly directed by Sid Furie, and a film I would love to have watched as a normal filmgoer."

Join us on Facebook ...

A new page has been created on Facebook for any readers of this blog and the main website, who want to connect together on that platform to talk about Deighton, spy fiction more generally, the Cold War or anything else relevant.

Do check it out.

Another candle on the cake...

Today is Len Deighton's 83rd birthday! On behalf of all the fans of his novels and readers of this blog, we extend a warm "congratulations" to him!

2012 is also the 50th anniversary of the publication of The IPCRESS File, Len's first novel and the story which arguably gave a brand new twist to the spy novel as Fleming's Bond books had done in the previous decade.

This blog will publish a series of posts on 'Ipcress at 50' during the year.

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?

A new cold front in spy fiction: a review of The Coldest City

Is the Berlin Wall still relevant to modern spy fiction?

When die Berliner Mauer was still wrapped around West Berlin like a ligature and operating as the main stage for the murderous theatre of the Cold War, it was a physical, dangerous, moody presence. This was perfect for framing taut, action-packed fiction.

Now, 22 years after its collapse, little remains of the Wall in a united Berlin. A new paradigm in global power politics exists which has few of the certainties of the Cold War. So does the Berlin Wall remain relevant to writers and readers of spy fiction any more?

One way to recapture the reality of what the Wall represented is in pictures, not words. The new black & white graphic novel The Coldest City, by New York Times-bestselling author Antony Johnston and artist Sam Hart does just that, rebuilding the Wall and the representing the doubts and absurdities of operating in a divided Berlin in frame after frame of moody, sparse images. 

I've been lucky enough to receive a preview copy of this 176-page graphic novel. The black & white illustrations by veteran artist Hart are beautiful and his frequent use of shadow and blocks of black, with little intermediate shading, helps recreate the monochrome pallor of a divided Berlin split by the Wall, running through the city like a skewer.

Johnston sets his story just at the time when the East German regime is being challenged by its people and the Wall starts to crumble - a fascinating time in the Wall's history which has only recently started to be addressed in fiction. As the world turns toward a new, open future, the old rules of the spy game must be honored one last time if all the players are to get out alive.

Straight out of the Ark ....

Deighton's cover for Ark 10

The last post on Deighton's cover art elicited not only some helpful emails but also a note from blog reader Caspar referencing the fantastic early illustrations Len produced for Ark magazine and expressing a desire to see someone dig them out and post them up. Well, never let it be said the Deighton Dossier doesn't listen to its readers!

Ark was - is - the in-house magazine for the Royal College of Art, produced by students as both a proving ground and showcase for the burgeoning British talents emerging in illustration, graphic design and production. Not only Deighton but contemporaries like friend and future cover designer Ray Hawkey, photographer Gordon Moore and designer Alan Fletcher were among the many students whose talents first became evident in Ark.

This explosion of British design talent - in contrast to the rather dull, everyday life of the fifties, a decade very much waiting for the sixties to arrive - is captured brilliantly in a book called Burning the Box of Beautiful Things by Alex Seago, which charts the "heady times" of the fifties and sixties in the UK's design scene as the postmodern moved from fringe to mainstream and conventional ideas about art and illustration were challenged the neo-Romantic, neo-Victorian sensibilities of the art establishment which students like David Hockney, Patrick Caulfield and Allen Jones railed against.