World Literary Awards

← Back to Home

Len Deighton

レン・ディトン

Ren Diton

Aliases: Leonard Cyril Deighton

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1929-02-18 （Marylebone, London, England）
Nationality
British
Languages
English
Residence History
London, England → Blackrock, County Louth, Ireland → Austria → France → United States → Portugal

Career

Occupations
Writer, Illustrator, Food correspondent
Active Years
1962-1996
Affiliations
The Observer
Memberships
Detection Club
Influenced By
W. Somerset Maugham, Eric Ambler, Ian Fleming, Graham Greene, John le Carré
Influenced
Jeremy Duns

Education

St Marylebone Grammar School
Country: United Kingdom
William Ellis School
Country: United Kingdom
Saint Martin's School of Art
Art
Country: United Kingdom
Royal College of Art
Art
Year of Graduation: 1955
Country: United Kingdom

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The IPCRESS File

1962 Spy novel

A spy novel featuring an unnamed working-class intelligence officer, cynical and tough.

Class societyEspionageCold War
Adaptations
  • [Film] The Ipcress File / Sidney J. Furie (1965)

Funeral in Berlin

1964 Spy novel

Spy novel with the same unnamed protagonist.

BerlinDefectionEspionage
Adaptations
  • [Film] Funeral in Berlin / Guy Hamilton (1966)

Billion Dollar Brain

1966 Spy novel

Continuation of the spy series.

ComputersCold War
Adaptations
  • [Film] Billion Dollar Brain / Ken Russell (1967)

SS-GB

1978 Alternative history novel

Alternate history where Nazis occupy Britain.

World War IINazisResistance
Adaptations
  • [TV miniseries] SS-GB (2017)

Bomber

1970 War novel

Fictional account of an RAF Bomber Command raid.

World War IIBombing
Adaptations
  • [Radio drama] Bomber (1995)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Complex narrative structureExtensive researchVerisimilitudeEnergetic style
Recurring Motifs
Working-class protagonistsCynical and tough spiesClass conflict

Legacy

Best known for spy novels, favourably compared to John le Carré, W. Somerset Maugham, etc. Several works adapted into films starring Michael Caine as Harry Palmer.

In Popular Culture

  • Motörhead's album Bomber named after his novel Bomber
  • Michael Caine as Harry Palmer in film adaptations

Trivia

  • Bomber is one of the first novels written on a word processor
  • Inventor of the cookstrip
  • Avoids interviews
  • Retired from writing after 1996