Leonard Cyril Deighton (1929-02-18) 18 February 1929 (age 95) Marylebone, London, England
Occupation
Writer, illustrator
Alma mater
Royal College of Art
Spouse
Ysabele (née de Ranitz)
(m. 1980)
Children
Two
Leonard Cyril Deighton (/ˈdeɪtən/; born 18 February 1929) is a British author. His publications have included cookery books and works on history, but he is best known for his spy novels.
After completing his national service in the Royal Air Force, Deighton attended the Saint Martin's School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London; he graduated from the latter in 1955. He had several jobs before becoming a book and magazine illustrator and designed the cover for the first UK edition of Jack Kerouac's 1957 work On the Road. He also worked for a period in an advertising agency. During an extended holiday in France he wrote his first novel, The IPCRESS File, which was published in 1962 and was a critical and commercial success. He wrote several spy novels featuring the same central character, an unnamed working-class intelligence officer, cynical and tough. Between 1962 and 1966 Deighton was the food correspondent for The Observer and drew cookstrips—black and white graphic recipes with a limited number of words. A selection of these was collected and published in 1965 as Len Deighton's Action Cook Book, the first of five cookery books he wrote. Other topics of non-fiction include military history.
Many of Deighton's books have been best sellers and he has been favourably compared both with his contemporary John le Carré and his literary antecedents W. Somerset Maugham, Eric Ambler, Ian Fleming and Graham Greene. Deighton's fictional work is marked by a complex narrative structure, extensive research and an air of verisimilitude.
Several of Deighton's works have been adapted for film and radio. Films include The Ipcress File (1965), Funeral in Berlin (1966), Billion Dollar Brain (1967) and Spy Story (1976). In 1988 Granada Television produced the miniseries Game, Set and Match based on his trilogy of the same name, and in 1995 BBC Radio 4 broadcast a real time dramatisation of his 1970 novel Bomber.
LenDeighton's Action Cook Book, the first of five cookery books he wrote. Other topics of non-fiction include military history. Many of Deighton's books...
LenDeighton (born 18 February 1929) is an English author known for his novels, works of military history, screenplays and cookery writing. He had a varied...
anti-hero protagonist of several films based on spy novels written by LenDeighton, in which the main character is an unnamed intelligence officer. For...
Berlin Game is a 1983 spy novel by LenDeighton. It is the first novel in the first of three trilogies about Bernard Samson, a middle-aged intelligence...
The Man in the High Castle (1962) by Philip K. Dick, SS-GB (1978) by LenDeighton, and Fatherland (1992) by Robert Harris. The stories deal with the politics...
Brain, based on books by author LenDeighton. Though an alternative title is LenDeighton's Bullet to Beijing, Deighton was not associated with the film...
is a 1964 spy novel by LenDeighton set between Saturday 5 October and Sunday 10 November 1963. It was the third of Deighton's novels about an unnamed...
directed by Ken Russell and based on the 1966 novel Billion-Dollar Brain by LenDeighton. The film features Michael Caine as secret agent Harry Palmer, the anti-hero...
films, including works by John Buchan, le Carré, Ian Fleming (Bond) and LenDeighton. It is a significant aspect of British cinema, with leading British directors...
Horse Under Water (1963) is the second of several LenDeighton spy novels featuring an unnamed British intelligence officer (named Harry Palmer in the...
The Ipcress File may refer to: The IPCRESS File, spy novel by LenDeighton (1962) The Ipcress File (film), British spy film by Sidney J. Furie (1965) The...
the spy in these novels is closer to the out-of-place bureaucrats of LenDeighton than to the James Bond model. He also mentions that when he began writing...
Spy Sinker is a 1990 spy novel by LenDeighton. It is the final novel in the second of three trilogies about Bernard Samson, a middle-aged and somewhat...
Archived from the original on May 4, 2019. Retrieved October 3, 2006. Deighton, Len (1985) [1983]. Berlin Game (1st Ballantine Books ed.). New York: Ballantine...
Bernard Samson is a fictional character created by LenDeighton. Samson is a middle-aged and somewhat jaded intelligence officer working for the Secret...
Mexico Set is a 1984 spy novel by LenDeighton. It is the second novel in the first of three trilogies about Bernard Samson, a middle-aged and somewhat...
other genres (Django/Zorro), literary adaptations of well-known authors (LenDeighton, Bret Easton Ellis), and campaigning to direct in major film franchises...
Global Information