Len Deighton – författare

'Masterly ... dazzlingly intelligent and subtle' Sunday Times'Deighton's best novel to date - sharp, witty and sour, like Raymond Chandler adapted to British gloom and the multiple betrayals of the spy' ObserverEmbattled agent Bernard Samson is used to being passed over for promotion as his younger, more ambitious colleagues - including his own wife Fiona - rise up the ranks of MI6. When a valued agent in East Berlin warns the British of a mole at the heart of the Service, Samson must return to the field and the city he loves to uncover the traitor's identity. This is the first novel in Len Deighton's acclaimed, Game, Set and Match trilogy.A BERNARD SAMSON NOVEL

'A stone-cold Cold War classic' Toby Litt, GuardianA high-ranking scientist has been kidnapped. A secret British intelligence agency must find out why. But as the quarry is pursued from grimy Soho to the other side of the world, what seemed a straightforward mission turns into something far more sinister. With its sardonic, cool, working-class hero, Len Deighton's sensational debut The IPCRESS File rewrote the spy thriller and became the defining novel of 1960's London.'Changed the shape of the espionage thriller ... there is an infectious energy about this book which makes it a joy to read' Daily Telegraph

'Deighton is a marvel ... a tale told by an author at the height of his power' Chicago TribuneWorld-weary agent Bernard Samson is losing control of his personal and professional life. Sent to Mexico to aid the defection of a KGB agent to the West, he has a chance to prove his worth. Instead he is torn between conflicting loyalties, and lost in a maze of double-dealing and duplicity. The second novel in the Game, Set and Match trilogy is a gripping portrayal of a man who can trust no one, not even those closest to him. A BERNARD SAMSON NOVEL

A BERNARD SAMSON NOVEL'The master of espionage writing at his brilliant best' Mail on SundayWith the Cold War drawing to a close in the East, Bernard Samson is still haunted by the events that have turned his life upside down over the last ten years. But when he takes a train from Moscow to Berlin, he stumbles across a clue that may lead him to the truth at last - even though, in finding the answers, he could lose everything. Bringing the 'Faith, Hope and Charity' trilogy, and Bernard Samson's story, to a stunning conclusion, this final volume brilliantly shows the human cost of the spying game.'The series represents a magnificent achievement in the field of espionage writing and Samson remains one of the great spies' Irish Times

A BERNARD SAMSON NOVEL'The plotting is masterly, the atmospheric descriptions superb ... absolute bliss' Sunday TelegraphSummer 1987, the final years of the Cold War. Bernard Samson has been sent to East Germany to make contact with a KGB defector, codename VERDI, who claims to have access to top intelligence secrets. But something goes wrong, and Bernard must struggle to stay in the game. Fighting to keep his job and rebuild his shattered marriage, kept in the dark by London Central, he has no one he can trust, and nothing to depend on but his own faith. This is the first part of the 'Faith, Hope and Charity' trilogy.'A string of brilliantly mounted set-pieces ... superbly laconic wisecracks' The Times

A BERNARD SAMSON NOVEL'A master of fictional espionage' Daily MailWhen Bernard Samson is woken in the middle of the night and discovers an injured man on his doorstep, he knows it will only bring trouble. It is the start of a dangerous journey to Zurich, rural Poland and the heart of a mystery that has tormented both him and his wife Fiona since they left East Berlin. Thrown into conflict with his superiors, and forced to question his job and his marriage, Bernard will learn, in the second part of the 'Faith, Hope and Charity' trilogy, whether treachery can ever be forgiven.'He can still set the nerve ends jangling with a thriller set in the Cold War ... his sense of pace is extraordinary, as is his sense of mood' Sunday Telegraph

'Spying at its most captivating and intricate' The Times'Deighton has woven an intricate and satisfying plot, peopled it with convincing characters and even given a new twist to the spy story. But then he is a master of the form' Washington PostLong-suffering spy Bernard Samson has, against all the odds, enticed a Soviet agent to defect to London - but this proves to be the start of something even bigger. For he learns that there is treachery within his own Service, and no one is free from suspicion. To discover who really controls the game of spies, he must attempt a desperate gamble. As the Game, Set and Match trilogy reaches its shattering finale, who will make the winning move?A BERNARD SAMSON NOVEL

'The classic and gripping spy novel of Cold War Berlin' Guardian1963 Berlin is dark and dangerous. The anonymous hero of The IPCRESS File has been sent to help arrange the defection - in an elaborate mock coffin - of a leading Soviet scientist. But, as he soon discovers, this deception hides an even deadlier truth. One of the first novels written after the construction of the Berlin Wall, Funeral in Berlin revels in the murky, chilling atmosphere of a divided city. 'A ferociously cool fable' The New York Times

'A monumental work ... brilliantly executed' Daily Telegraph'The pace and tension leave one almost breathless. A frightening yet compelling novel' Sunday TelegraphPeter and Paul, the two sons of German businessman Harald Winter, are bonded together by a childhood trauma. But as they grow up the brothers also grow apart. When the shadow of the Third Reich falls they become divided by war and their differing ideals - only to meet again years later at the Nuremberg trials. An epic prelude to the Bernard Samson Game, Set and Match trilogy, Winter is a rich, tragic portrait of the fortunes of a family, and a nation, over half a century.

'For sheer readability he has no peer' Evening StandardParis in the 1960's caters for every taste, and nowhere more than at the private 'clinic' run by the enigmatic Monsieur Datt on Avenue Foch, which supplies psychedelic drugs and sexual favours to the city's elite - all the while secretly filming guests in order to blackmail them. Into this decadent underworld steps a bespectacled British spy. Sent on what seems like a simple mission, he soon finds himself playing a game where the rules are unknown - and even victory could be fatal.'Take this excellent thriller at a single gulp' Sunday TimesA PATRICK ARMSTRONG NOVEL

'Dazzlingly intelligent and subtle' Sunday Times'Worth of Raymond Chandler ... intelligent, inventive, constantly entertaining' Sunday TelegraphTexan billionaire General Midwinter will stop at nothing to bring down the USSR - even if it puts the whole world at risk. The fourth and final novel featuring the cynical, insolent narrator of The IPCRESS File sees him sent from his shabby Soho office to bone-freezing Helsinki in order to penetrate Midwinter's vast anti-Communist network - and stop a deadly virus from wiping out the planet.

'The poet of the spy story' Sunday TimesA sunken U-Boat has lain undisturbed on the Atlantic ocean floor since the Second World War - until now. Inside its rusting hull, among the corpses of top-rank Nazis, lie secrets people will kill to obtain. The sequel to Len Deighton's game-changing debut The IPCRESS File, Horse Under Water sees its nameless, laconic narrator sent from fogbound London to the Algarve, where he must dive through layers of deceit in a place rotten with betrayals.

'Probably the best thing ever written about the wartime air campaign against Germany' Max Hastings'Magnificent ... rich with historical detail' The Times31 June, 1943. An RAF crew prepare for their next bombing raid on Germany. It is a night that many will never forget. Len Deighton's devastating novel is a gripping minute-by-minute account of what happens over the next twenty-four hours. Told through the eyes of ordinary people in the air and on the ground - from a young pilot to the inhabitants of a small town in the Ruhr - Bomber is an unforgettable portrayal of individuals caught up in the wreckage of war.'A superbly mobilised tragedy of the machines which men make to destroy themselves. Masterly' Spectator

'Deighton has a desire, unobtrusive but inflexible, to see the truth ... Blitzkrieg is full of insights' Financial TimesThis is the story of the Nazi conquest of western Europe, from Hitler's rise to power and 'lightning-fast war', to his fatal mistake in halting the German advance on Dunkirk in 1940. Drawing on technical mastery and interviews with both Allied and German participants, Blitzkrieg sets out the technical thinking behind the attack and the weapons that made it possible. It is a compelling, detailed account of Europe's darkest hour. 'What Deighton did for the Battle of Britain in Fighter he has done for the land-war here ... A rattlingly good yarn' Guardian

'Every page of Deighton's work glows with the excitement of discovery ... wonderful' Geoff Dyer, GuardianThis unflinching history of the darkest days of the Second World War covers the entire world stage, from the Battle of the Atlantic to Pearl Harbor. Rooted in the personal accounts of the soldiers themselves, Blood, Tears and Folly is a sweeping, moving account of the political machinations, the strategy and tactics, the weapons and the men on both sides who created a world of devastation.'If he had never written a word of fiction Deighton would still be remembered for his scholarly and merciless history of the Second World War, Blood, Tears and Folly' Peter Millar, The Times

'A superb example of Deighton's craft' Robert HarrisJanuary 1942. Rommel's troops are at the gates of Egypt, soon to threaten Cairo itself. A spy has been leaking British secrets to the German commander, and Captain Albert Cutler has been sent to find them amongst the city's teeming streets and bazaars, before it is too late. But Cutler is not quite what he seems, and Cairo is a city of fool's gold, where nothing can be taken at face value.'The pace of the story is compulsive ... it is a real pleasure to be swallowed up in Deighton's descriptions of wartime Cairo' Daily Telegraph'A novel reminiscent in spirit to Casablanca. Play it again, Len' Kirkus Reviews

'Stylish and stimulating' The TimesAgeing Hollywood star Marshall Stone is scared. Scared that the parts are drying up. Scared of being forgotten. So when he hears an eminent author is writing his biography, Stone siezes the chance of immortality. But painful memories and suppressed scandals soon threaten to destroy the carefully-constructed fiction of his life. Inspired by Len Deighton's own experiences of the film industry, Close-Up is a brilliant exposé of the sleaze, venality and betrayals of the studio machine.'The richness, the sardonic humour, the wheeling and dealing ... the power of the book is undoubted' Evening Standard

'Deighton really is something special' Sunday TimesLen Deighton's only collection of short stories explores the devastating experiences of ordinary soldiers across over two thousand years of war. From Hannibal's march on Rome to the American Civil War, and from a British Hurricane pilot in the Second World War to a modern conflict played out in the Mexican borderlands, each of these stories shows the effects of war on the human character, and how it can lead to extraordinary deeds, both great and terrible. 'Len Deighton is a fearless observer of the deceptive human world' John Gray

'The most honest attempt yet to tell how the Battle of Britain really was' Andrew Wilson, ObserverHistory is swamped by patriotic myths about the aerial combat fought between the RAF and the Luftwaffe over the summer of 1940. In his gripping history of the Battle of Britain, Len Deighton drew on a decade of research and his own wartime experiences to puncture these myths and point towards a more objective, and even more inspiring, truth.'Revolutionised thinking about the Battle of Britain in a way that has not been seriously challenged since' The Times

'The sheer charge of the writing swept me into another world' The TimesDecember 1943. A group of US fighter pilots is camped at a windswept air base in Norfolk. Their job is to escort bombers over Germany, and each mission could be their last. Among them are cocky Lieutenant Mickey Morse (nicknamed 'Mickey Mouse'), who is almost on his way to becoming a Flying Ace, and reserved Captain Jamie Farebrother, who is starting to fall in love with an English woman. All they have in common is their courage - until the day their lives converge in ways they could never have imagined.'Truly astonishing in its recreation of a time and place ... it is a novel of memory, satisfying on every imaginable level' Washington Post

'A superb novel ... you will be hooked from the first chapter and enjoy every line' Sunday ExpressDeep in the South American jungle the MAMista Marxist revolutionaries are fighting a hopeless, protracted war against a dictator - while the CIA see an opportunity. Amid the turmoil, three very different people - a doctor, a young firebrand and an educated revolutionary - find themselves thrown together and trapped at the heart of a battle where the enemy is uncertain, and there can be no winners. Len Deighton's first post-Cold War novel is a chilling and compelling story of revolution and betrayal.'Moral ambiguity used to be called Greeneland. Since Graham Greene's death, at least part of it ought to be renamed Deightonsville' Time Magazine

'Dazzling ingenuity and cleverness' IndependentThree con artists are on the make, and making millions. There's Silas, the leader, slick and self-assured; Liz, his glamorous lover; and Bob, the young cockney upstart (who's also falling for Liz). As this uneasy trio's swindles take them from New York high-rises to sixties London, corrupt governments to, finally, the ultimate con in the Middle East, will their luck start to run out?'For sheer readability he has no peer' Evening Standard

'A master of fictional espionage' Daily Mail'In Deighton's best books - like this one - the narrative glides forward on rollers, and the scenes and characters fit perfectly into place. The result is marvellous' IndependentMillions of pounds have gone missing, and the Department have sent agent Bernard Samson to Washington to track them down. But this mission is just the start of something far deeper and darker. It will take him from the English suburbs to Berlin, the South of France to Los Angeles and the heart of a maelstrom. In the first part of the Hook, Line and Sinker trilogy, friends become enemies, pursuer becomes victim and no one - not even Bernard himself - is above suspicion.A BERNARD SAMSON NOVEL

'This is vintage Deighton' Sunday Times'Spy Line is vigorous and sleazy, psychologically complex and action-packed. And it is always exciting' Daily MailBernard Samson is a spy on the run. But in the murky streets of Berlin, he knows where to hide. Wanted for an act of treachery he has not committed, he must not only escape the grasp of London Central, but get to the bottom of a tangled conspiracy that is about to change everything. In the thrilling penultimate instalment of the Hook, Line and Sinker trilogy, Bernard's personal and professional life collide with devastating consequences.A BERNARD SAMSON NOVEL

'Dazzling ingenuity and cleverness' Independent'Chilling ... the writing is crisp and brutal' Daily TelegraphOf all the mysteries Bernard Samson has encountered, the greatest is his wife Fiona. Dedicated agent of the Service and a woman of secrets, she will risk everything to play the long game. As the truth about the decision that shattered their marriage is gradually revealed, the web of deception that has snared Bernard for ten years begins to unravel. In the gripping, tragic finale of the Hook, Line and Sinker trilogy, everything we thought we knew is brought into question.A BERNARD SAMSON NOVEL

'Len Deighton's spy novels are so good they make me sad the Cold War is over' Malcolm GladwellAfter six weeks in a nuclear submarine gathering computer data on Soviet activity, the mysterious, bespectacled spy known as Patrick Armstrong is desperate to return home. But when he arrives at his London flat, it appears to be occupied by someone who looks just like him - and he finds himself propelled into the heart of a conspiracy stretching from the remote Scottish highlands to the Arctic ice. Revisiting some of the characters from The IPCRESS File, Spy Story shows military games played out for real, and the Cold War turning dangerously hot. 'Menacing, beguiling ... a vintage Len Deighton thriller' The Times Literary SupplementA PATRICK ARMSTRONG NOVEL

'Deighton's best book ... an absorbingly exciting spy story that is also a fascinating exercise in might-have-been speculation' The New York Times Book ReviewIt is 1941 and Germany has won the war. Britain is occupied, Churchill executed and the King imprisoned in the Tower of London. At Scotland Yard, Detective Inspector Archer tries to do his job and keep his head down. But when a body is found in a Mayfair flat, what at first appears to be a routine murder investigation sends him into a world of espionage, deceit and betrayal.'Len Deighton is the Flaubert of contemporary thriller writers ... this is much the way things would have turned out if the Germans had won' The Times Literary Supplement