The Deighton Dossier

I'm sad to report on the passing of Len Deighton 1929 to 2026

2026-03-17T18:12:00.003+00:00

It is with sadness that this blog notes the passing of Len Deighton, announced today (15 March 2026) by his family. He was 97.

This blog exists as a companion to the main Deighton Dossier website, which I created nearly twenty years ago now. I did so, as a reader, upon finding that online, there were few, if any, quality websites for readers, and collectors, to find out more about the author,

Since then, I think that the Deighton Dossier has played its part in keeping the author's works visible online, even as he enjoyed retirement for the last thirty years, out of the spotlight. And this blog too, has played its role, even though blogs are - like high buttoned shoes and loose leaf tea - something of an anachronism in this social media age.

So, it is probably time to put a lid on this blog. I will keep it up, as there are many articles which readers may still want to explore, and I know from my experiences today online and offline that with his passing, people have again shown interest in the author's works - for example, people who may have remembered reading a novel of his twenty five years ago - and younger readers, looking for classics to read, may well come to this blog, or the Deighton Dossier, and find something that inspires them to read.

In that sense, job done.

97, and still going strong - Happy Birthday to the author

2026-02-18T18:28:00.000+00:00

This blog celebrates the life and work of author Len Deighton.

And today we send good wishes to the author on the occasion of his 97th birthday.

Ever since The Ipcress File was published in 1962, his books have never been out of print, and Len Deighton can firmly count himself among the 'greats' in terms of British spy fiction.

Even after three decades or so of retirement, his books and characters still resonate with readers: here are a few anonymised missives received today over on the Deighton Dossier Facebook group from readers around the world.

"You're not just one of the greatest ever spy fiction writers; you're one of the greatest English writers since the war."

"Thanks for the decades of pleasure reading your books"

"You are always my reply when anyone asks me: 'Who is your favourite author?'"

"I'll be putting Spy Story in my suitcase for a cruise next week. Fabulous."

"Truly excellent writer"

"I can honestly say Len's writing has enriched my life."

"My life is richer for having read [your works]"

"A superb author"

"Truly, the poet of the spy story"

... and others besides these.

There remains a lot of affection for his books, and his contribution to popular culture, from readers around the world.

Happy birthday, Len!

Spycraft and spy writers

2025-09-23T11:32:00.002+01:00

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?

2025-02-05T18:58:00.008+00:00

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.

To the collector, the spoils

2024-06-09T17:02:00.003+01:00

Last month I explored the Firsts Rare Book Fare in London's Saatchi Gallery. I went with a good friend of mine who - as well as being a fellow Deighton collector - is one of the world's top Ian Fleming collectors, with a collection that is the envy of many.

Funeral in Berlin ... at a price

Tbere were plenty of Ian Flemings on show - a complete collection of first editions would set you back £145,000! But there were also a good number of Deighton first editions on show, the nicest of which was the Funeral in Berlin with the Michael Caine wraparound, at nearly £,2000 (above).

There were, naturally, books from every possible author you could think of, classic and modern, and covering both fiction and non-fiction alike.

The size of the show - and the prices of the Flemings and other 'star' books (£11,000 for a first edition Harry Potter) - point to two things. One, even in this digital age, there remains a market for both books, and rare books; and two: prices, while they may seem outrageous, continue to reflect the old economic adage of supply and demand.

Some books are clearly more in demand than others. Why does an Ian Fleming first edition of Casino Royale cost anywhere up to £25,000, whereas a first edition of SS-GB by Len Deighton, or The Fourth Protocol by Frederik Forsyth cost maybe £50 to £110?

Lots of factors, I suppose, with Fleming. Timing: the publication of Casino Royale in the 'fifties as the UK emerged from the privation of rationing, but with the heroism of the war still fresh in people's minds, is one thing; the desire of readers for escapism and adventure, too, of course; Fleming's connections in the publishing and media world helped launch the series, of course. Plus, they're clearly very readable books, still.

The films, of course, also boosted popularity of anything associated with James Bond, not least the rare book market. My Fleming-collecting pal regaled me of stories of first editions passed on decades ago when on offer at a tiny fraction of the current market price, with regret in his voice. Fleming collecting requires deep pockets.

John Le Carre was perhaps the author whose rarities at the show were starting to aspire to Fleming prices and collectability, with some first editions of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold demanding £4,000 to £5,000 or more, and many other of his books heading north of £2,000 a short.

Like most other forms of collecting, as decades go by, scarcity increases, and prices necessarily do too. Despite the best efforts of the dealers at the show and book dealers around the world to find, preserve and bring to market lost treasures and ephemera, inevitably editions will disappear from circulation, be destroyed, get defaced, or simply mislaid.

In my experience as a collector of Deightons, it is the very scarcity of some books and items that makes them attractive as collectable items; that, and the obvious factors of great story telling and interesting cover designs, of course. But the scarcer something is, the more a collector will want it.

A relative bargain, based on the median prices evident elsewhere at Firsts

On this blog, over the years, I've made posts about a number of super rare items that I've been lucky enough to find - sometimes after an intense search, sometimes just through dumb luck - and there is a frisson of excitement whether at a rare book far, a second half bookshop, or online, whenever something rare comes up. The dealers at the show understand this, and create value for themselves and collectors by scouring the globe for rare items and bringing them together at shows like Firsts, where some will dig into their pockets, while other visitors will just look on and admire (as I did on that day).

Rarity in the case of Ian Fleming books means eye-wateringly high prices, because the world of Fleming collecting is for the upper echelons of the collecting world. The heavy hitters. The big guns. The top collectors know the top dealers personally; they all know their clients 'want lists', and know the value of repeat business to both parties, and of discretion. It's a fascinating relationship to understand at this rarified end of the book collecting world.

With Len Deighton's books, prices are more reasonable on the whole. Of course, first editions of The Ipcress File, Billion-Dollar Brain, Funeral in Berlin and Horse Under Water do attract quite high prices, being now so limited in number (for example, The Ipcress File pictured below was going for £2,450). But then, other editions, like the SS-GB shown above, were more reasonable, at £70, as supplies remain good, given the large print runs these books got compared to earlier stories.

Rarity, of any author's books, means higher prices

I started collecting Deighton's because I enjoyed the books and found them an affordable and relatively straightforward option to collect. So, while I've spent good money on the odd rare item, I've never had to break the bank and go beyond my means.

If you're a fan of Ian Fleming, or John Le Carre, starting a collection now - as opposed to thirty years ago - is now pretty much out of the question for many people.

Who knows what the next Ian Fleming will be? Will there ever be another popular fiction writer that dominates the new and rare book markets as he did? Of modern authors, I think right now J K Rowling is starting to show signs of being the modern standard setter for rare and collectable book prices, judging by what I saw at the show.

But then, there's no rhyme or reason sometimes to why some authors are popular - and pricey - while some can be purchased for virtually nothing. Something can always change - a film often help - and propel an author into the collecting stratosphere.

I think one such author who could become as collectable as Len Deighton or John Le Carre is Mick Herron, whose Slow Horses series of books is now, judging by what I saw at First, eminently collectable and rising up the charts. The popular TV series may also drive interest in the original books, too.

I remember discussing with my pal in the pub afterwards that book collecting - like records or stamp collecting - could be seen as a form of addiction in a way: the desire for 'just one more' book for the collection is powerful. It's not for nothing, perhaps, that the stands at the show were peopled by book 'dealers'.

But, as addictions go, it's fairly benign. No one really gets harmed by it. Both sides - sellers and buyers - benefit from the transaction. And both help preserve our literary history, one book at a time which, in this electronic, on-demand, screen driven world, can't be a bad thing.

Harry Palmer on the Town

2023-12-08T09:06:00.008+00:00

Recently I found online - after searching for it for over ten years - a copy of Town Magazine from July 1966, with a great feature written at the time that the Funeral in Berlin film was being made in the West German capital.

Town Magazine was in the 'sixties one of the first true 'men's magazines' - in its broadest sense; obviously, being the sixties, there are features on pretty girls - including girls featuring in Bond films - but there are, like Playboy had at the time in the States, plenty of articles on deep topics around politics, science, culture etc. Town is a far cry from the 'nineties 'lads mags' in the UK, like Zoo and Loaded.

What comes across strongly in this feature is that one film in, Michael Caine was still not yet a global superstar; more, he was an up and comer. But you already get from reading this article a sense that he was on a trajectory to stardom.

What's fascinating about finding and reading through decades-old magazines is seeing just how different the adverts are and what consumer sensibilities advertisers appealed to: the back cover is for cigarettes, and there are adverts for sports cars, tailored suits, after shave and Terylene trousers

Anyway, take a look at the article 'Son of IPCRESS':

"Sprechen Sie Deutsch, English?"

2023-08-21T19:20:00.006+01:00

I have recently picked up a very rare and interesting book - the German first hardback edition of The IPCRESS File.

I've never seen a copy before. Sure, there are plenty of German paperback ('taschenbuch') editions out there from the sixties, from this and the other 'Harry Palmer' novels. But until now, I'd never seen this particular edition.

It's around 1cm shorter and 1.5cm narrower than the UK first edition. I've noticed for many years that with other German editions, the range of standard sizes differs ever so slightly to English and US publishing standards, which you can see when they're aligned on the bookshelf. Plus, on the spine - and I've always preferred this - Germans present the title from the bottom up, whereas English publishers present it top down.

Perhaps because I'm left-handed, somehow it seems to make more sense.

The cover image is very spy-fiction: the disembodied eye. What's more interesting is that the back cover of the book (published three years after the UK first edition), has the famous photo of Len Deighton lunching with Ian Fleming, and the inside dust jacket flap has more information about other James Bond books the publisher - Scherz - has produced.

I speak reasonable German (though I wouldn't say I'm fluent), so it's interesting to dip into the book and read a familiar story, with familiar characters, in an unfamiliar (for them) language. It gives you a keen understanding of the role of the translator: his or her job is never to simply offer direct translations of each word or sentence, or just to parse one syntax into another.

They have the fascinating and difficult task of first identifying the meaning in the original - often tough when the author is using idiomatic humour, sarcasm, allusion or other linguistic tools, then finding the right words and phrasing which convey the same meaning, without necessarily the same words or sentence structure.

There are some straightforward differences. For a start, the title is different: it has no definite article. Instead, it is IPCRESS - streng geheim, in effect IPCRESS - 'top secret'. More obviously spy-fiction adjacent than the original title.

It's very easy - as with reading any text in a non-native language, but particularly so in German - to be caught out by so-called 'false friends', words which on the face of it seem easy to translate, but are not in fact so.

For example, each chapter of the original starts with a horoscope. Chapter 3's is:

"Wasserman (20. Jan. - 19. Feb.) Sie haben sich vielleicht zu sehr auf die Absichten and Ideen andere Leute verlassen. Völlige Umstellung wird Ihnen gut tun."

I hadn't read the book for a few years and so it took a few seconds for it to click that a 'water man' was in fact referring to Aquarius, the horoscope. Then, the translation in my head made sense.

The actual passage in the US first edition is below, and you can see how the translator has been pretty literal here in their choice of translation into the German, which still conveys the knowing sense of the words, as they relate to the story unfolding for the nameless protagonist:

— Aquarius (Jan 20 - Feb. 19) You may be relying too heavily on other people's intentions and ideas. A complete change will do you good. —

This also highlights peculiarities of how each language treats dates (in the UK and first editions, the month comes first - which struck me as an Americanism in itself); these are the small things which the translator has to get right alongside the big stuff. Similarly, the US edition uses em-dashes for speech, while the German using quote marks.

Harry Palmer's employer is now in this German edition W.O.O.C.(V)., rather than W.O.O.C.(P). Of course, the department acronym is never fully explained except the P being provisional. So, here, V probably stands for Vorläufig, the nearest German translation.

In places, it also reads like some idiomatic expressions or humorous asides from the protagonist - of which there are many - have been excised, perhaps because the translator simply couldn't get what the author's meaning was for one or other specific turns of phrase. For example, this section in the UK first edition:

"Monday I got to Charlotte Street usual time. A little grey rusting Morris 1000 knelt at the curb, Alice at the controls, I was pretending I hadn't seen her when she called out to me. I got into the car, the motor revved, away we went. We drove in silence a little way then I said, 'I can't find the wet bag of cement to put my feet into,' She turned and cracked her make-up a little. Encouraged, I asked her where we were going.
'To bait a raven trap, I believe,' she said.

In the German, the quip about the bag of cement - alluding I think to the doom-laden view the protagonist has of his work with Dalby - is simply not there; presumably, either the translator couldn't find an elegant way to translate it, or he felt it might get in the way of the German readers' comprehension. So translators are, in a way, also editors.

German syntax is structured differently to English - the active verb is often at the end of a sentence, meaning as a reader you only really discover the meaning when the verb pops up at the end; with German also employing many fascinatingly complex compound nouns and longer sentences on average than English, as a reader you read with a slightly different rhythm in your head, as meaning is unravelled rather than simply presented.

Anyway, it's a cracking little edition and I'm finding it a fun exercise to read bits of a very familiar story in a different context. With German being one of the languages of Cold War espionage, it also seems apt for reading a spy novel.

I have, in my collection, editions of various Deighton novels in different languages, the most obscure being Norwegian and Romanian. That is another whole kettle of fish and I imagine it will be a long, long time until I felt able to tackle that (I speak precisely zero Norwegian or Romanian).

But, it goes to show that Deighton's works clearly had commercial and cultural appeal across Europe and other parts of the world.

The radical act of having a book on your shelf

2023-07-29T12:58:00.005+01:00

The inevitable snowflake!

Any collector of first edition or out-of-print books might think their hobby is immune to the ravages of the "culture wars" which are infecting the body politics on both sides of the Atlantic.

Far from it.

As this interesting article in the UK"s Spiked magazine shows, the simple act of collecting an old or out of print edition of a book is now a radical political act, on a par with the publication of samizdat editions of books in the old Soviet Union.

Sure, the author exaggerates a little to make a point. But it does highlight concerns I and other collectors have about the growing readiness of publishers to revise new editions of established works - often using the services of the delightfully termed 'sensitivity reader' - and excise from them any sort of "problematic" wording.

Problematic to whom? Who declares it a problem? Is this agreed by everybody? Is it a genuine assessment, or the opinion of some fruitcake with a Twitter handle?

I hate the word "problematic".

It's so mealy-mouthed, and redolent of much of the official corporate jargon that's now a feature of publishing, as well as other industries, for which the risk of offending somebody or some online group now takes precedence over, well, the integrity of the novel, of art, of history.

This is a new phenomenon - the whole sensitivity industry (for that's what it is) has grown up maybe in just the last decade. But it is affecting many authors that readers of this blog will be familiar with.

Roald Dahl's children's books are a famous victim of this seemingly benign, but in truth dangerous trend to - literally - rewrite the past.

In the world of spy fiction, Ian Fleming's novels are now undergoing the same treatment, to remove some of the so-called 'problematic' references which the publisher is worried about.

In both those (and other) instances, the novelist has passed away and their estates - charged with looking after the interests of the author's works - are, seemingly, happy to go along with this.

The judgement must be that today's readers, growing up in a society where everything offends someone, should be pandered to; and you can perhaps see a commercial case for doing so. Why risk a Twitter 'pile-on' and put sales under threat.

But, it's such a cowardly act, I think, not least because it changes the author's words, often without their permission.

Should we repaint the Last Supper because it is insufficiently diverse? Should Wagner's operas be expunged of any notes that might hint at German nationalism? Do we change the lyrics of 'Dear God' by XTC because the religiously minded don't like it?

Where does it stop? And who decides?

The author, I think, must be the arbiter.

To my knowledge, in the most recent Penguin reissues of Len Deighton's novels, there have been no edits or excisions prompted by sensitivity readers.

That may be because, although they are written in the sixties, seventies and eighties and nineties, they are not replete with egregious examples of racism, sexism or any other -ism you can think of.

Sure, there are a few words and characters which a sensitivity reader might baulk at; but, having read most of the novels at least a couple of times, to me these words - auxiliary though they may be - are just as important as any of the key passages or bits of dialogue.

They were chosen by the author.

And as a reader, I want to read what the author wrote. I don't want to read what someone thinks I should read.

The question here is one of integrity.

Any book, by its very nature, is of its time, and so will also reflect the sensibilities and language of its time. And to that extent, I can see perhaps the sense of adding a publishers' note in the end papers advising readers of that fact. It's merely a guide, a sop to the more sensitive reader, that leaves the book unsullied

But change the language?

That feels like a step too far. Any novel represents the author's vision and story, and language and description and dialogue is integral to that. Changing one word, one sentence, one paragraph, or a character's name or description, undermines that cohesive vision.

There's often a reason an author may have used a racial slur in a book, or gave a character a certain character trait, or presented a character with a physical difficulty. We don't know that reason - and nor should we - so it's not for us to second guess why it's there.

But it is there, and it should remain there. We can acknowledge it; comment on it; wince at it. But, change it?

If you're offended by it, well, don't read the book; or, just put the book to one side.

To push for having the book altered to suit your own sensibilities or that of a certain group in society seems utterly selfish and self-important.

So, going back to the original article's point, I am, evidently, now a radical.

I don't feel like one. But I understand the (incredibly minor) role I play as a collector in keeping reality, and truth, and artistic integrity alive.

Indeed, I also have a full collection of Spike Milligan's works - loved by children and adults alike but, in their subversiveness and (in the case of his war memoirs) unexpurgated frankness, they are ripe for the sensitivity readers chopping block.

Same with my Tintin first editions.

Much of their contents would make the average Gen-Z aploplectic. But, I enjoy them, nonetheless.

By keeping them on my shelves, and perhaps in future passing them on to someone else or selling them through a dealer, I feel some solace that I am undertaking an entirely passive, but revolutionary act, in the name of truth and reality, during this current period of cultural perturbation.

As if I needed another reason to keep my collection safe, and growing!

What do you think?

Reading versus listening

2023-03-03T14:01:00.002+00:00

Berlin Game audiobook on cassette, read by Paul Daneman

I was recently contacted by email from a reader asking if I knew anything about the actor who read the audiobook of Spy Story, whose performance he particularly enjoyed. I didn't, as it happens, but it made me think about the audiobook phenomenon.

To that end, there were also postings on Deighton Dossier facebook group asking why readers could no longer get many of Deighton's stories on audiobook format in the US (according to the author's agent, this is a temporary phenomenon, as the rights to said audiobooks is currently being renegotiated).

Judging by a number of posts indicating people prefer to read/listen to Deighton's book in audio form, there's clearly demand for this author's books - and, indeed, many authors' books - in listenable format.

As a collector of Len Deighton books I have - alongside my first editions, special editions, paperbacks and other phenomena - many of his books as audiobooks. Yet, I've never listened to an audiobook from start to finish.

Why is that?

I have nothing against audiobooks per se. They are a perfectly legitimate form of media alongside the printed page, and their popularity has grown massively over the past thirty years or so, particularly with the rise of comapnies like audible.com.

I can see how they can provide a different experience to a reader, akin to listening to the radio.

Thinking about them prompted me to take another look at (or should that be, listen to) some of the audiobooks of Len Deighton's novels and see if my feelings were still the same.

First task: find a tape recorder (remember those?). Most of the audio books I own of Deighton's works are on audio cassette. I managed to find a very old flat, desktop player, which I - literally - had to dust off.

I have, in storage, about 25 different audiobooks of Len Deighton novels: all ten books of the Samson series; Bomber, The Ipcress File, Spy Story, and a number of others. Most are UK editions by Chivers Audiobooks, but with a couple of US editions too.

Bomber, read by James Faulkner

The publisher

A little bit of online research identified that Chivers Audiobooks was a British publisher based in Bath, and they seem to have had their heyday in the 'eighties and 'nineties, when audiobooks - often back then referred to as 'books on tape' - were a small but popular part of the book world, and evidently popular in libraries (a number of mine have library stamps). It was one of the first audiobook success stories, and expanded to have a US arm, Chivers Sound Library

Chivers was subsequently amalgamated with BBC Audiobooks into a new company owned by BBC Worldwide; it, in turn, was then sold to a US company called AudioGo. That company eventually ran into financial trouble and ceased trading around 2015. I suspect it, like other similar companies, was a victim of the growth of online e-books and streaming and the rise of audible (owned by Amazon), the behemoth of the modern audiobook world.

Chivers was one of the first companies, according to Wikipedia, to employ British stage and TV actors to narrate their books. Understandable, given that a key function of any audiobook is not just clarity and diction but the capacity, using just the spoken word, to bring characters to life.

Interestingly, the Chivers audiobooks were published just over a decade after the original spy novels were published, and in quick succession. So, Berlin Game the book was published in 1983, but the audiobook only came out in 1992; XPD was first published in 1981, but the audiobook came out in 1997; Spy Line came out in 1989, and its audio version only four years later.

Spy Line, read by Paul Daneman

This leads me to think that in the 'late eighties and 'nineties, audiobooks weren't on the radar of the publisher as a core product, with the rights being sold to Chivers who I guess spotted the potential of the market as the idea of books-on-tape grew, secured the rights, and then rushed the back catalogue out.

Most of the audiobooks I have are UK versions, but there was/is clearly a US market too. I have a couple of audiobooks - this time, on compact disc - from US publisher Blackstone Audio, which is still in existence and is one of the largest independent audiobook publishers.

Faith, read by Robert Whitfield

The actors

The main British actor which Chivers used in the 1980s to read Berlin Game and many of the other Bernard Samson novels, was Paul Daneman, a RADA-trained actor who did mostly stage and TV dramas in the UK. He certainly has a clear, relatively accentless voice and does a reasonable job as both narrator and interpreting the characters' dialogue, both for male and female characters. His background at RADA means you get more of a 'performance' in each audiobook: they are more than just someone simply reading each of the words in sequence, and his diction and timing seem, well, professional.

By contracting him for the first six books of the Samson series, there is a continuity for the listener in having the same narrative voice throughout. Based on my collection, Daneman seems to have been Chivers' go-to narrator for their other Deighton books, having also narrated The Ipcress File, Spy Story, Funeral in Berlin, among others.

But he didn't do all of them: James Faulkner was brought in to read the last three: Faith, Hope and Charity. Evidently, he's still an active actor, having been in Game of Thrones.

Another British actor called Michael Jayston - a member of the Royal Shakespeare, no less - provides the narrator for the short story series Declarations of War, and while the timbre and volume of his voice is obviously different to Daneman's, they both do a perfectly serviceable and entertaining job with the text provided.

Interestingly, my US edition of Faith also uses a British narrator - Robert Whitfield, but he was not an actor but a former BBC continuity announcer. I imagine form followed function, in that it made sense to US audiences to have an English accent for what was essentially an English spy novel.

The design

Among the Chivers audiobooks - all on tape - the packaging is in dimensions very similar to the hardback book, but instead of pages there is a brittle plastic casing, with formed spaces into which up to 16 audio cassettes are placed.

One things I noticed on many of the audiobooks is that these plastic forms did not always hold the cassette in place very well - and are damaged easily - which must have meant many readers at the time opening the audiobooks and experience three, four or five cassettes falling out one after the other, as I experienced upon re-examining many of these for the first time in many years.

Declarations of War, illustrated by Gordon Chubb

For the Chivers' editions, many of the covers use the same illustration as on the book: Declarations of War uses the illustration by Gordon Chubb used on the paperback versions of the book; whereas Spy Hook uses a brand new uncredited design based around the Berlin Wall, Spy Line uses a line drawing of a barbed wire barb, hinting again at the Wall.

The experience

Removing the requirement to read - which takes concentration and a modicum of energy - and simply asking the reader to listen is an altogether different phenomenon from simply opening a book. For a start, the narrator has a distinct, external voice; when one reads - and I assume it's the same for everyone - the narrative voice sounding out the words is likely to be your own, familiar voice.

So, there's something new for a reader who maybe is used to reading and 'hearing' their own voice, as I am. It's certainly not an unpleasant experience, and it's best done sitting down in a chair, relaxed, with a nice drink, because it does require concentration. On tape or CD, you do also as a listener/reader have the option of pressing pause - just as you can always put the bookmark in the book - if the doorbell rings, or if you wish to get a drink.

I did try listening to one book in bed, but - and I'm sure this isn't a new phenomenon - I found myself drifting off to sleep and, consequently, waking up with the narration having moved on. So, I don't think for me an audiobook would work in the same way - or be as satisfying - as simply being tucked up in bed with the novel itself.

Most importantly, the big difference I found was the odd sensation of hearing the words of Bernard Samson, or the unnamed spy of the first few novels, differently to the 'voice' I'd attributed in my imagination to that character whenever I'd read them.

And yet, I don't feel this sense of oddness, and dislocation, when watching the ITV adaptation of Game, Set and Match or any of the Harry Palmer movies. And I think that's because on the movie or TV screen, as a viewer you have multiple sources of information - dialogue, visuals, background sound, music - to concentrate on, so you don't notice voices quite so intently as when there is just one, the narrator.

Audiobooks are - invariably - a single voice, performing all the functions that, as a reader, you perform yourself. So, it felt a little like being in the mind of a second reader, which perhaps shouldn't be surprising. I can certainly see the value of audiobooks to some readers, and on picking out the odd example from my collection I could imagine myself one day listening to one, from start to finish.

But, I don't foresee myself doing so any time soon.

Conclusions

Whether it's Len Deighton's books, or any other novel, I like to be my own narrator, and build the characters for myself. Audiobooks, for me, remove that degree of control and therefore provide a slightly different, but maybe no less rewarding, 'reading' experience.

I don't currently have an audible account or own any books in .mp3 format, or stream them. Yet, many readers clearly do and for any author, what counts is not whether the 'reader' experiences the book in paper, electronic or tape format ... but whether they enjoy what you've written.

And in whatever format, as a long-standing reader, I continue to enjoy Deighton's novels.

What's your experience of using audiobooks - either for Len Deighton novels or for any other novel. Do you use audiobooks alone? Do you like books and audiobooks? Or are you, like me, sticking with paper?

A different kind of Dossier: the Jackdaw 'JFK Assassination' special

2022-09-21T12:14:00.002+01:00

An email conversation with a fellow collector recent alighted upon the topic of "The Assassination of President Kennedy", the folder (not book) of essays and pictures about the assasination of the US president compiled and designed by Michael Rand, Howard Loxton and Len Deighton.

The conversation was prompted by seeing an eBay listing for a pristine, signed copy of the Jackdaw Folder, valued at over £1,000! The price perhaps reflects that it's signed by the author, but even so, it's pretty steep. As a collector I've been tempted many times to pay over the odds for a rare Deighton, but that took my breath away. I fear the seller may have to temper their outlook.

Nevertheless, it prompted me to take my copy off the shelf, and look at it again, something I haven't done for a number of years in point of fact. And, to consider its value as a 'book', a collectable item, and its place within the wider canon of Deighton books.

It's one of the favourite items I own with a Deighton collection, for many reasons. It's format is unusual, and well designed. It's an interesting subject matter. It's rare, which is always a draw for a collector. And, perhaps, given the subject material, it's an even-handed attempt to address the most controversial of topics for which there are a thousands of books all telling a different angle on the story.

If you've only read Deighton's novels, you may not be aware of this unusual entry in his catalogue. Let's explore it further.

What is it?

This item is certainly an outlier in Deighton's catalogue. For a start, it's not a book. It's a folder, containing a number of loose-leaf items pertaining to the 1963 assassination, thematically presented to provide the reader with the basic information about the case and an insight into the discussion around it. These are:

A scale model in card paper of Deeley Plaza, which the reader can build to better understand the mise en scene of the assassination
A facsimile of an anti-Kennedy poster circulated in Dallas
A photograph of the assassination
A summary of the autopsy report included in the Warren Commission
Illustrations of the President's wounds
The FBI report on the autopsy
A descriptive sheet of the autopsy
A photo of the President's bloodied shirt
Jackie Kennedy's official testimony to the Warren Commission
Warren Commission document 767
An advertisement for the rifle used by the assassin
A reproduced of the alleged weapon
A list of questions raised by the evidence
Five broadsheet essays covering the different aspects of the case.

However, it's not by any means a source of information for conspiracy nuts. It's a reasoned, well put-together and interesting alternative to a dense book, for someone coming to the subject first time, such as school children.

Who contributed?

Len Deighton is one of three authors. Michael Rand was the Sunday Times Magazine's art director for thirty years, someone who would have been known to Deighton as a fellow graphic designer and from his time working on a number of feature articles in the same magazine.

As to Howard Loxton, the third contribution, an online search didn't produce anything concrete as to his connection to the other two authors, or his wider contribution to literature and design. (If any blog readers can thrown any light on him, do please add a comment). My suspicion is that, like Rand, he too was involved in the publishing or magazine world, so likely a companion of the author.

It's not clear which specific elements or essays Deighton wrote - the one about Jack Ruby perhaps, or the broadsheet on the Warren Commission? The likelihood is that they probably wrote it collectively, as the style seems consistent across all the content; that is, there isn't any one thing that stands out like a passage from a Deighton book.

In the separate notes on the exhibits, each one has several paragraphs of explanatory text, giving more detail about each aspect of the assassination and the subsequent investigation, which concluded - famously - that the killing was the responsibility of Lee Harvey Oswald. The whole thing feels thorough, a trait one associates with Len Deighton's non-fiction historical writing, certainly.

Who was its target audience?

Thirdly, the format is largely targeted at schoolchildren and teachers, not the regular reader. It's an educational tool, but clearly for a high or secondary school level; perhaps as part of a history or civics class. The intention with a folder was clearly to have something which could be opened and shared by pupils around a table or on a bench: exchanged, discussed, and examined.

Only 1,500 of the original edition were ever produced, and few are found in perfect mint condition or indeed complete. Not surprising, given that most will have ended up in educational settings and - well, you know kids - have had parts lost or written or, or the diorama would have been punched out and assembled.

The collection as a whole does present a single opinion or viewpoint; rather, it lays out the facts in front of the reader in an interesting and visually appealing way, and was clearly designed to allow the reader/class to draw their own conclusions rather than a single viewpoint. However, it is clearly drawing a lot on the conclusions of the Warren Commission, so there is little consideration of more outré theories of the assassination.

What's the best bit?

Undoubtedly, it's item number 1, a military green foolscap folder containing the pieces for a cardboard cut out diorama of Deeley Plaza in Dallas. As well as instructions for pushing out each element from the cardboard and assembling it, it contains a guide to the key positions in the model.

Children were encouraged to build it and use it clearly as a discussion point for the lesson. My own copy is mint and complete and contains the mini open-top car in which the President rode (this tiny piece is often missing in other copies of the folder I've seen; understandably so, given its size).

I've often felt tempted to assemble the model, to see how it looks when completed. But then the collector in me takes over: a pristine, non-assembled version of model is crucial to maintain the integrity of the item; it's the sort of thing collectors will look out fore.

What do we know about the publisher?

Jackdaw Publications is a US-based educational publishing company specialising in primary source documents; indeed, the company is still publishing.

The edition I own was published in the UK through a Jonathan Cape/Jackdaw tie-up (Cape was Deighton's publisher already by 1967, when this folder was produced), but I think the version available in the US is pretty much the same item.

On the back of the blue contents document is a list of other similar Jackdaw folders. They cover a diverse range of topics, from The Battle of Agincourt to Joan of Arc, from The Armada to The Crimean War (my copy is, clearly, the UK edition).

Is it collectable?

Perhaps because of the association with Deighton, this has become the rarest and most collectable of the hundreds of Jackdaw folders produced.

If you want to avail yourself of a copy - and don't fancy shelling out £1,000+ on eBay - then this page of the Jackdaw Publications website indicates that facsimiles of the 'sixties original folder are still available to purchase (albeit, without the Presidential Seal on the back of the original). There is even (isn't there always, nowadays) a Facebook group associated with the Jackdaw phenomenon; for many people who went to school in the sixties and seventies, these Jackdaw folders were, evidently, quite the thing.

The verdict

It's interesting; a rarity. And oddly out of sync with the trajectory of Deighton's career at the time of publication (1967), by which time he's already published the first Harry Palmer novels, and The Ipcress File and Funeral in Berlin had already been turned into movies.

So, as an author he was very much on the up at time of publication, which makes the decision to contribute to what is essentially a school textbook quite intriguing. He didn't have to, but more likely he wanted to as he was interested in the topic, it was timely, and he was helping out friends and colleagues.

Whatever the reason, it's a fascinating piece of ephemera that is still available from time to time online, and certainly at prices far below the listing linked to above.

The art of Shirley Deighton

2022-06-24T22:02:00.005+01:00

A recent comment on this blog asked for some examples of the work of Shirley Deighton (nee Thompson), the artist and illustrator (Deighton was also an illustrator and graphic designer), who was Len Deighton's wife until they divorced in the late 'sixties. He the writer, she the artist, they were very much the creative pair in sixties swinging London.

Here are some of the paintings and images I have on file, some of which are taken from an episode of The Antiques Roadshow, in which a number of her illustrations were bought along for valuing:

Never a cross word

2022-06-12T17:29:00.006+01:00

The crossword competition laid in the first edition

Earlier this month, the Guardian's crossword blog writer wrote a nice little piece about, well, crosswords, and their contribution to developing the reader's understanding of Len Deighton's famous 'unnamed spy' - later, of course, Harry Palmer.

The article looked in particular at Horse Under Water, the second book in the series but the only one of the four main books not turned into a film starring Michael Caine (the producer Harry Saltzman chose to film Funeral in Berlin first, because in the mid-60s the city had become the hot-spot of the Cold War, so to speak, and he thought it would make a better movie. While there were some early plans for a Horse Under Water film, nothing - sadly - ever materialised)

The piece recalls that, famously, the chapter headings in Horse Under Water are in the form of crossword puzzle clues, and that the crosswords on the endpapers of the original first edition drew on clues which in effect, when solved, created a sort of table of contents for the book.

I'm pleased - after getting in touch - that they used a couple of my images and provided a link to the page I have on the main Deighton Dossier website specifically to do with the crosswords in this book. In the Bernard Samson series, in London Game, Bernard Samson too is found toying with a crossword, using it to elicit a false answer from Giles Trent's sister to get to the bottom of the former's attempted suicide and his potential guilt as a London Central spy.

It's all in the detail

2022-05-15T19:10:00.006+01:00

Recently I purchased three original marketing photographs produced by Jonathan Cape's marketing team for the 1970 launch of the first edition of Bomber, Len Deighton's magnum opus about the experiences of the wartime bombing raids over German which is often regarded as on of his best novels (certainly, of his non-spy fiction books).

The novel is also, famously, the first modern novel written on a true IBM PC, which at the time took up much of the room in Deighton's office in his ground floor flat in London, as I wrote about a number of years ago.

Although it missed out on being shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1970, Bomber was lauded by writer Anthony Burgess as one of the 99 best novels of the twentieth century in the English language.

Part of the reason for the particular success of Bomber (which was also turned into a Radio 4 play) is Deighton's attention to detail. As a writer it has often been acknowledged by readers and critics that Len Deighton's books are full of exquisitely research details, particularly when it comes to military materiel and historical occurrences. Some readers have found this propensity for technical minutiae off-putting, but many others - myself included - feel it adds a level of realism that grounds the story and reassures the reader that they story they're reading is as true to life as it can be.

The publicity shots below show something of Deighton's approach to marshalling the facts and ensuring every novel he wrote didn't leave his hands without being scrupulously accurate.

Bomber is the epitome of this. Not content with researching archives and military histories to understand what the reality for a bomber pilot during the war was, the author was able to use his renown to get access to the real thing - as the above pictures illustrate (although, this is of course a German bomber); it also allowed him to talk extensively to air and ground crews - on both sides - who flew the planes and maintained them, to ensure that every description, every conversation on board the plane and on the ground, had the verisimilitude that he felt would give the reader the best experience and, metaphorically at least, put him or her in the plane with the main characters.

As the top picture shows, assiduous use of military maps and information, with every fact and snippet added to an extensive coloured card collection which formed the 'database' for consulting during the writing of the novel, ensured that after months of preparation, he could write his novel confident that he could represent the experience of wartime bombing raids as accurately as possible and, therefore, create the best novels he could create.

The Ipcress File tv series - the verdict

2022-03-19T12:57:00.003+00:00

Dalby, Harry and Jean ready for action

Well, after months - and I mean months - of hype and pre-publicity, the new tv adaptation of Len Deighton's The Ipcress File has broadcast its first two episodes on commercial channel ITV in the UK (and all six episodes made available on ITVhub streaming).

And the verdict from this viewer is ... it's pretty good. Indeed, very good. An adaptation worthy of the book.

Sure, it's not the original Michael Caine film of the same name, and that's probably a good thing, so strong is the cultural imprinting of that performance on the British viewing public. If you remember that, then this new series - and the new Harry Palmer portrayed by Joe Cole - provides six hours of very entertaining, stylish, engrossing and believable drama.

(I'm conscious that there may be readers of this blog in countries outside of the UK who haven't seen the series yet, so any comments below about how I viewed the series will be as spoiler-free as possible.)

Here are my top take-aways from having watched all six episodes:

Joe Cole is not Michael Caine's Harry Palmer, and that's fine

Young British actor Cole gives a good performance throughout and, noticeably, it improves over the series, reflecting the fact that each scene and episode was filmed by director James Watkins in sequence. So you can see the acting chemistry, and the relationships between the main characters, blossom, to a degree.

Cole maintains the surly disdain for authority and the chippy laddishness of the original unnamed spy from the book, and also from Caine's performance, but this is overall a more subtle Harry Palmer, one focused more on drama than on periodic dips into subtle comedy. The style of quips and one lines made famous in the first film are still there, but overall this is a more serious performance, reflecting the nature of the adaption. Like Caine, he's not action super spy, and the fighting sequence are befitting of a made who rarely shoots and relies on his wit and insight, than his fists.

It's more of a proper thriller than the film

Two advantages producers Will Clarke, Andy Mayson and Sandy Lieberson had which original producer Harry Saltzman did not: budget, and time. It's evident from the quality of the set design, the overseas locations (Croatia standing in for Lebanon scenes), the length of the production and the quality of the scriptwriting that producers had space to let the original - very complicated - story breathe, and unfold.

The overall tone is more of a crime thriller, and the music is much more sombre and low key in the series than in the film, where John Barry's score was almost one of the main characters.

The script by John Hodge is pretty tight, and each episode is brought skillfully to a level of tension and denouement which allows the tension for the viewer to be well-paced right up to the 'reveal' in the final episode, which is a departure from the book (and an interesting one at that).

It's an adaptation from the original book, not an exercise in verismillitude

Some reviewers and viewers have complained that it's not like the original movie. Other reviewers and viewers feel that the script veered too far from the original book and that the ending felt forced. I don't sit in either camp.

There was enough from the original book - indeed, key scenes in Lebanon and Tokwe island that were missing from the original film were back in the tv series - to make it authentic enough and a tribute to the original books.

Indeed, the quality of the script was such that the convoluted - indeed, often confusing - nature of the exposition and plot in the original books (noted by a number of columnists) is to a degree replicated. The viewer is skillfully guided by the actors and the director through scenes to a place where he or she may think they have understood one character's relationship to the other, only for the next episode to prove them wrong.

A thriller over six episodes needs to keep the viewer on their toes, and this series does it well.

Jean Courtney's expanded role works well enough, and Boynton fits the part

Lucy Boynton's character Jean Courtney is one example of where producers and script writers have tampered with the original, largely one suspects to fit in with modern mores and the need for a strong female lead character. Whereas in the book she's an assistant at W.O.O.C.(P)., in the TV series she's a full agent, and arguably as crucial to the plot development as is Harry Palmer. But in the context of the series, it works, I believe.

Boynton's Jean is posh, guarded, ambitious and a tough cookie, and has a significantly greater amount of screen time than her film counterpart. Boynton plays her as icy cold, slightly stiff - perhaps too stiff at times - but like Joe Cole's Palmer, her portrayal seems to fit well with the overall more serious tone of the series. As a character, too, there's scope for further development.

Tom Hollander's Dalby is excellent

No surprise, really - he's a great actor. Stepping into the shoes of Nigel Green's portrayal of the original Dalby from the film could have been a poisoned chalice, but Hollander's portrayal is altogether more complete, I think, and reflective of what's in the book.

Sure, he plays up the old school tie elements, the chumminess of Whitehall at the time, which works well as a source of tension with Harry Palmer, particularly in the early scenes where Dalby has Palmer tied on a string, metaphorically speaking.

But you can also see a real relationship between the two develop over the six episodes, as trust builds and any early scepticism about Palmer's shady past is moved beyond. Indeed, by the end, there's a degree of mutual respect between the two, which contrasts sharply with how the original film ended.

Ashley Thomas' Maddox adds a new layer of complexity

The CIA underhand and disguised involvement in Harry's disappearance and subsequent torture by the practitioners of the IPCRESS system was part of the original book, but the role of the Americans as the real 'power behind the file' across the series is really amped up as the programme develops.

The flirtatious entrapment of Jean by Maddox, and his ambiguous relationship with the American General Cathcart, who's in charge of the development of the US neutron bomb which Harry and Jean witness on Tokwe, leave one as a viewer wondering quite what his deal is - is he for real, is he trustworthy, is he a traitor, or is he one of the heroes? That's the sign of a good thriller - uncertainty, until the final resolution in episode six.

There is scope for more

All the key characters make it to the end intact, and give the appearance of a 'team' being forged at W.O.O.C.(P). This clearly gives the producers, and scriptwriters, an opening to move onto further Harry Palmer stories - either Funeral in Berlin, Horse Under Water (never filmed), Billion Dollar Brain or An Expensive Place to Die - or to branch off into original material (the arguably more riskier move).

Clearly, this will be dependent upon the success of the series, and the response from commercial advertisers on TV and on streaming, but if it's a hit - and the signs are it could be - then the foundations are good for further development, particularly in characters.

Joe Cole's portrayal has been great, terrible, or so-so, depending on which reviewer you read. But I think he's a competent actor, and no fool. He was clearly aware of Caine's performance and adopted subtle nods to it in his own (the glasses, for one), but he's done enough to make his own version of Harry Palmer stand on its own two feet.

The nods to the original film show producers recognised they're handling a classic

The producers - including executive producer Steven Saltzman, son of Harry Saltzman, the original producer - could have been lazy and just remade the film. They didn't do that, and have tried to embellish the original plot in the book in order to create enough material for a six hour series.

But they've equally not tried to paint over the original colour. They kept key elements of the plot intact; the characters, while subtly different, can still trace a line back to the book and the films (the potrayals of Chilcott-Oates and office harridan Alice, for example); and the relish with which the look and feel of sixties Berlin, London and Lebanon were portrayed in great detail shows they were cognisant of what had gone before.

The nods to the original film were sufficient and subtle enough to provide a hat-tip to the original, without ever descending into pastiche. The frequent use of Dutch angles - or wonky camera work, according to dissatisfied critics - was reminiscent of Otto Heller's original cinematography, but also generally worked to give the series a distinct visual style.

The chippy by-play and understated romantic attachment between Harry and Jean is playfully understated and their relationship is believably difficult, but also warm.

David Dencick's Colonel Stok was not as bombastic as Oskar Homolka's

This was the one character that jarred a little, so different was it from the book, plus the fact that the character only really cemented itself into our minds in Funeral in Berlin. The character in the tv series is still duplicitous and as flirtatiously ambivalent about the Cold War as only the most zealous of Cold Warriors can afford to be, and the portrayal is fine.

Indeed, like Harry Palmer, his character and his relationship to the bespectacled spy also has more time to be expounded - the relationship in London which ends in tragedy is a new twist - and that adds something.

I guess, however, that so iconic was the original back and forth repartee between Homolka and Caine that it's difficult as a viewer to cut through that. But, if there's a Funeral in Berlin adaptation, then there's scope for this to develop I guess.

Bringing in Harry's backstory made sense

His black market past in Berlin is only ever alluded to in the books, and in the film, but as a way of understanding the character's predicament, his relationship to Dalby, and his development throughout the series, it makes perfect sense.

Palmer is a man in a bind, with a way out, and a route to redemption and to prove himself, not just as a man but as a working class spy in a world still ridden by class who - by the end of the series - proves his capability as a spy. It's a cornerstone of the character and essential to making him believable.

So, what did other readers make of the series, if you've already seen it or are watching it? Do share your thoughts below (but keep any spoilers to a minimum if you can).

The Ipcress File TV series premiering 6 March

2022-03-03T19:58:00.006+00:00

This Sunday in the UK - and in many of the international TV markets to which the rights have been sold - the new adaptation of The Ipcress File by ITV will be seen for the first time.

This week has seen a lot of the weekly TV listings guides in the UK publish feature articles about the series, focusing on the lead actors - Joe Cole as Harry Palmer, and Lucy Boynton as Jean Courtenay (Jean Tonneson in the book) - as well as providing some background on the book.

Much of the advanced publicity around the book has, not unsurprisingly, focused on comparisons between the new series and the original 1965 movie starring Michael Caine. Interestingly, all the signs are from the producers and the actors that while there are the odd 'tributes' to the original movie, this TV series will be different.

One advantage for the TV series of course is a bigger budget, allowing the producers to film more of the overseas scenes in the book (such as in the Pacific Atoll where a nuclear bomb test is due to take place) which the original film budget didn't stretch to.

Below are some examples of the articles giving the background to the series and interviews with the actors.

Happy 93rd Birthday, Len

2022-02-19T18:52:00.004+00:00

... 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

ITV releases teaser trailer for new Ipcress File series

2022-01-24T18:44:00.002+00:00

UK commercial broadcaster ITV has released the first teaser trailer for the new TV series of The Ipcress File, which will be broadcast in the UK in March (details for other locations to be confirmed).

While little of the plot is given away, it's clear that the series will make some significant departures from both the book and the 1964 original film starring Michael Caine, such as the more active agent role for Jean, played by Lucy Boynton, evidence of the backstory of the 'unnamed spy' - Harry Palmer - and his role in the Berlin black market which led to military prison and ultimately, the job with W.O.O.C.(P)., plus the sidebar story involving the nuclear test in the Pacific, which is a big part of the book but which was of course not featured in the original film.

The music, too, is very different to John Barry's original film score, which may be no bad thing; it certainly hints at a more obvious thriller tone to the TV series, and there are obvious hints at more visceral action scenes than was the case in the original film.

So, early encouraging signs perhaps that this isn't just a pastiche, by-the-numbers remake, but a serious attempt to retell this classic spy story.

But the proof of the pudding will be in the eating, or in this case, the viewing. Set your TV calendars for March.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to Deighton Dossier readers

2021-12-23T19:25:00.005+00:00

'"Cheer up, Werner. It will soon be Christmas," I said.'

Bernard Samson to Werner Volkmann, first line, Chapter 1, Mexico Set

Like Bernie and Werner in Werner's Audi in freezing West Berlin, we're all waiting for Christmas.

So it's an appropriate time to wish all readers of this blog - plus visitors to the main Deighton Dossier website or the Facebook group - Yuletide wishes. While blog posting this year has been rather light, on the Facebook group particularly there's still been plenty of good discussions among collectors and readers of Deighton's books.

And early in 2022 for viewers in the UK - and certainly later on in the US and likely other TV markets - we'll get to see another of Deighton's spy creations - 'Harry Palmer' (as he became) - who will be seen played by Joe Cole in the new ITV drama series The Ipcress File, broadcast 33 years after the last TV series (also on ITV) featuring Bernard Samson, Game, Set & Match.

Hopefully, the new series will bring renewed interest in the books, the character and, of course, the author.

Deighton up for Southwark Blue Plaque

2021-10-07T12:37:00.002+01:00

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.

More Penguin classics roll off the production line...

2021-09-30T17:42:00.008+01:00

Today I've received in the post a further five books from the Penguin Modern Classics editions, which have been dropping onto booksellers shelves throughout 2021.

The latest editions are:

Close-Up
Yesterday's Spy
Spy Story
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy
An Expensive Place to Die.

The bold cover designs by Richard Green continue to be visually interesting - each book features the Ray Hawkey-inspired chevron motif linking back to his original Penguin covers from the 1960s, with some bold colour choices, each too with the 'dot matrix' B&W photo pointing to the themes explored in the novels.

The cover of Yesterday's Spy bold, with its bold white cover, hints at a nod to the original Hawkey first edition covers for the unnamed spy stories in the 'sixties, which for the time were groundbreaking in their use of white on the dustcovers, which was traditionally avoided by book designers due to its propensity to show the dirt, where customers for example picked them up to browse.

There are a few more still to come out later in the autumn, including Goodbye Mickey Mouse and City of Gold.

I've been very impressed with Penguin's approach and its readiness to go all-in on the design motif that connects each and every book being republished and honours the company's long standing connection to the author. They've evidently taken a lot of time and care over each edition, which no doubt will help with attracting new readers to the novels.

Eastern Europe in England

2021-08-07T17:31:00.005+01:00

I recently did some searching of various newspaper archives and found this interesting article from the Daily Mirror newspaper from late in 1987, during the filming of the Granada TV mini-series Game, Set and Match, based on the three Len Deighton novels of the same name (which was broadcast in Autumn 1988).

Famously, it recounts how - given that the Berlin Wall still existed at the time, and filming behind the Wall was, unsurprisingly, not allowed - the producers had to improvise when filming the many scenes requiring actor Ian Holm (as Bernard) and others to be in Eastern Europe.

Gdansk, Lancashire.

For the scenes in Gdansk Railway Station, Manchester's Victoria Station (now majorly different in layout) stood in, thanks to the addition of some Polish signage and Eastern Bloc cars.

For example, Bolton Town Hall stood in for Gdansk, in the scene where Bernard goes behind the Iron Curtain to meet with Yuri Rostov to seek his defection, the failure of which leads Bernard to flee Eastern Europe via an escape across the wall (a scene which is told in flashback in the books, but which provides the opening scenes in the TV mini series that provide a context for explaining Bernard Samson's position back in London Central, desk-bound.

Other filming was done in and around the North West (the series was produced by Granada TV, the regional commercial TV station in England which formed part of the ITV network). For instance, the village of Great Budworth near Northwich stood in for Cosham (which is actually on the south coast of England in the books), for the scene where Bernard and Werner discover the body of McKenzie in the departmental safe house, left there by Erich Stinnes, who is seeking to undermine Samson's position within London Central by pinning the murder on him.

The two-page article from the Daily Mirror, which explores other aspects of the production (including the filming in West Berlin and Mexico), was part of the pre-launch publicity around the series which, despite Granada TV's largest drama budget up to that point, ultimately failed to prove the smash hit that was expected. Famously, due to disagreements with the producers during the making of the film, the commercial rights for the series were withdrawn by Len Deighton, meaning the series - and its many North West locations - haven't ever been broadcast again on British TV, or released on DVD.

Couple of recent Deighton-related articles readers may be interested in

2021-05-16T13:02:00.005+01:00

Things are relatively quiet with respect to news about Deighton's books - now that the Penguin editions are starting to roll out - but there are still the odd article relating to the author and his works for readers to be aware of.

In The New Statesman (a UK-based, broadly left-of-centre magazine), journalist John Gray has written a profile style piece called Len Deighton and the mundanity of spies. If you can look past the odd spelling error (sub-editors failed to correct a reference to 'Leighton'), then it's worthwhile giving it a read, as the writer compares Deighton's spy thrillers with other classic characters and stories from Maugham and Fleming and others.

Earlier in the month, in The Observer, Deighton's son Alex - who has been co-authoriting the most recent cookstrips in the magazine with his father (now, sadly, at an end), discusses with the interviewer the recent launch of the new Penguin Modern Classics editions, and his father's continued legacy of books being enjoyed by new generations of readers.

New Disney editions looking very stylish

2021-03-13T15:55:00.002+00:00

Last year, it was announced that Penguin had secured the paperback writes to Len Deighton's fiction and non-fiction output, and would publish them under its Penguin Modern Classics imprint.

The first cover images for the initial releases in the series have been released, and they look mightily impressive, based on those available so far (all the books are available for pre-order, but not all covers have been shared yet).

The overall look and feel has been created by Penguin's Art Director Tony Stoddart, and what is immediately apparently is how his overall feel seems to make passing references to previous Penguin film tie-in editions from the sixties, with the famous covers featuring Michael Caine as Harry Palmer, which were designed by Len Deighton's long-time collaborator, Raymond Hawkey.

Take a look, and see what you think.

Funeral in Berlin 2021, designed by Tony Stoddart

Funeral in Berlin 1966, designed by Ramond Hawkey

The orange chevron in the new edition is a wonderful homage to the famous - and famously successful - three editions of the 'Harry Palmer' novels which were published by Penguin in the 'sixties; they did not, however, have the rights to The Ipcress File.

These new editions will include all Deighton's fiction output, plus many of his historical works too.

Another serendipitous find

2021-02-26T20:25:00.003+00:00

As a collector of Len Deighton's output (along with a couple of other authors) for a number of decades, through talking to dealers, scouring second-hand book shops and trawling online sites like ABEBooks, I've got a pretty good idea of what the market is:

Which books are rare
How often the crop up in the market
What represents good value

That allows me, as a collector, to be more focused and targeted and ensure that any spare cash I use on adding to my collection, is well-used and helps me get a more complete collection.

Every so often, something comes along that I've never heard of or seen before for sale; one recent example explored here on this blog was the SS-GB Whitehall postcard - super rare - which I found after years of searching. Surprisingly, within a couple of months, I found another (which I purchased) that included some of the original publicity content sent out to booksellers.

Feast and famine, and serendipity. Such is the experience of the serious book collector.

This week, I found another item that was totally off my radar. It's a limited edition book of illustrations, called An Alphabet in praise of Frogs and Toads by John Norris Wood. And, it has a foreword by Len Deighton (as a serious collector, I don't collect just Deighton's books, but his forewords and book jacket illustrations too).

Why? Well, it turns out Wood and Deighton were fellow students at London's Royal College of Art, where both were graphic designers and illustrators. Deighton's forward recalls his time at the college and his friendship with Wood. The book itself is simply page after page of - admittedly well done - pictures of frogs and toads. But, as a limited private printing of just 320 copies, it's rare.

I checked with other collectors and online and found that the market price was in the £2-300 mark.

Me? I paid £50 online for it. I'd consider that a bargain for something so rare.

It just goes to show that for those of us who enjoy collecting books - of whatever kind - there's always something new to find, and that's why we do what we do; that's why collectors are rarely satisfied or say to themselves, "You know, I'm done."

Happy collecting.

A new Harry Palmer on the horizon

2021-01-01T21:00:00.002+00:00

The new Harry Palmer. What, no glasses?

Before Christmas, ITV delivered a Christmas present for Deighton fans, of sorts.

A new six-part TV series based on The Ipcress File novel is planned for broadcast this year, with a new younger cast recreating Len Deighton's first novel - reimagining, perhaps, given the fabled original movie starring Michael Caine is so well known.

The part made famous by Michael Caine will be played by young British actor Joe Cole, who's most famous for his role in BBC 1's Peaky Blinders historical drama. He'll be joined by actress Lucy Boynton - who one imagines will play Jean - and also Tom Hollander. Further details are awaited about the series but the signs in the ITV press release are relatively positive.

With six parts, presumably an hour long, the producers should have more time for character development and to visit more parts of the books - including those in the Pacific - which were excised from the original cinema version.

Potentially, too, they have the option to explore more of Harry Palmer's back story - the producers are sticking with the name created for the film, given the brand value of doing so - particularly his criminal acts within the army in Berlin which originally landed him with Colonel Ross in W.O.O.C.(P).

Of course, any series based on a book from the 'sixties will inevitably be 'updated' and made 'relevant', but as long as it's not egregious or doesn't get in the way of telling the story, such things are forgiveable.

Still, it should be fun, and I wait to see with interest whether it can hold its ground with the original.

Now, some better 2021 New Year news would be to hear that Clerkenwell Films - holders of the TV rights for all nine Bernard Samson books - has, having held the rights for over five years - announced plans to start filming the series.

But, maybe we have to wait for April Fool's Day for that announcement.

What do other readers think - good idea or not, the Ipcress update?