Deighton, Len

▪ English writer

born Feb. 18, 1929, Marylebone, London, Eng.

      English author, journalist, film producer, and a leading writer of spy stories, his best-known being his first, The Ipcress File (1962), an account of deception and betrayal in an espionage agency.

      Deighton was educated at the Royal College of Art, London, after service in the Royal Air Force.

      In Funeral in Berlin (1964), The Billion Dollar Brain (1966), and An Expensive Place to Die (1967), he continued his blend of espionage and suspense. Like The Ipcress File, these novels centre on an unnamed hero and show Deighton's craftsmanship, crisp prose style, and mastery of plot. In Only When I Larf (1968), Deighton moved from the subject of spies to confidence tricksters. In the suspense novel Bomber (1970), he treated a misdirected bombing mission of World War II. In 1972, with Close-Up, Deighton abandoned the suspense theme and chose instead to explore Hollywood's film industry. He returned to the espionage genre in 1974 with Spy Story and a later series of trilogies featuring British intelligence agent Bernard Samson, which include Spy Hook (1988), Spy Line (1989), and Spy Sinker (1990) and Faith (1994), Hope (1995), and Charity (1996). Other novels are SS-GB (1978), XPD (1981), Goodbye, Mickey Mouse (1982), and Winter (1987).

      Many of his books were adapted for the screen, including The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin, The Billion Dollar Brain, Only When I Larf, and An Expensive Place to Die. Deighton also wrote several historical accounts of World War II (e.g., Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of Dunkirk [1979]) and a number of cookbooks.

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