Len Deighton
Leonard Cyril Deighton, known as Len Deighton (born February 18, 1929 in London ) is an English illustrator and author .
Life
Len Deighton was born in 1929 in the Marylebone district of London to Anglo-Irish parents. His father worked as a chauffeur for the Campbell Dodgson family , who was responsible for prints and drawings at the British Museum . During the Second World War the Deightons lived in the Dodgson household, in which the young Deighton had a good opportunity to observe life in the various classes of society. Deighton shared his interest in food with his mother, who worked as a cook in a hotel.
The war disrupted Deighton's regular education at St Marylebone Grammar School. He worked as a courier and after finishing school for some time as a railroad employee. At the age of 17 he joined the Royal Air Force , where he was employed as a photographer in the Special Investigation Branch. In 1949 Deighton left the armed forces. A scholarship for former service members enabled him to enroll at St. Martin's School of Art. He later studied at the Royal College of Art . These years were also important for his development as a writer. In an interview, Deighton said, "I believe the reason that working class people don't write books is because they are convinced that only select people are allowed to write books."
During the 1950s Deighton worked in a variety of professions - waiter in Piccadilly , assistant pastry chef at the Royal Festival Hall , factory manager, teacher in Brittany , illustrator in New York , news photographer and director of an advertising agency in London. As a steward of the British Overseas Airways Corporation , he traveled to many exotic locations from 1956-57. In 1960 Deighton married Shirley Thompson, an illustrator. He later lived with his family on a farm near the Morne Mountains in Ireland and Portugal .
In the 1960s, Deighton wrote a weekly series of illustrated French recipes for the London Observer . His first cookbook, Action Cook Book: Len Deighton's Guide to Eating , was published in 1965. The novel that determined his breakthrough as a writer, The Ipcress File (1962), Deighton finished on the Île de Porquerolles in France . It was made by Hodder & Stoughton Ltd. published and immediately a huge success. The critics rated him "better than Fleming ". The book has been translated into several languages and printed as a series in the London Evening Standard . Unsatisfied with The Ipcress File , Deighton began writing Horse Under Water (1963) soon after signing his first novel . His publisher was not interested in reading his draft - the first book had not yet been published - and Deighton submitted his manuscript to Tom Maschler of Jonathan Cape. Cape remained its publisher until the 1980s.
plant
Len Deighton's work comprises around 35 novels: espionage stories, thrillers and novels related to war history. He also wrote cookbooks.
It all started with the Harry Palmer series:
The first 4 books with an unnamed secret agent - he is called "Harry Palmer" in the films - were made in the 1960s: IPCRESS - top secret ; Fish don't talk ; Finals in Berlin ; The billion dollar brain . (Three of them were filmed with Michael Caine .) This was followed by: Eiskalt (German 1977); Nail test (German 1978); Sahara duel (German 1983)
The Bernard Samson range:
Deighton dedicated 3 trilogies to the character "Bernard Samson", an MI6 agent :
1. Brahms Four - Mexico Poker - London Match -
2. Baited - Drilled - Linked -
3. Faith - Hope - Charity (not translated into German).
The background to this is provided by In Treu und Glaube - a novel by a Berlin family from 1899 to 1945 (German 1988)
SS-GB is a historical fiction in which the Third Reich triumphed over Great Britain and kept it occupied.
In other novels Deighton shows himself as a knowledgeable military historian : Bomber (German 1971); Battle of Britain (German 1982); Blitzkrieg (German 1983); Goodbye for a hero (German 1986); Use: Men in War (German 1986)
He has expressed his love for the art of cooking in several cookbooks.
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Awards
- 1984 - Swedish Crime Award (International) for: Byte i Berlin (Norstedt, Stockholm 1984; original title: Berlin Game ; German title: Brahms vier . Ullstein, Frankfurt / M. 1984)
- 1986 - German Crime Prize (International 2) for: Mexico-Poker (Ullstein, Frankfurt / M. 1985; original title: Mexico set )
- 1987 - Deutscher Krimi Preis (International 2) for: London Match (Ullstein, Frankfurt / M. 1986; original title: London match )
Film adaptations
- 1965 - Ipcress - Top Secret (The Ipcress File) - Director: Sidney J. Furie , with: Michael Caine
- 1966 - Finale in Berlin (Funeral in Berlin) - Director: Guy Hamilton , with: Michael Caine, Paul Hubschmid , Eva Renzi , Oskar Homolka , Heinz Schubert , Wolfgang Völz , Herbert Fux and Rainer Brandt
- 1967 - The Billion Dollar Brain (Brain trillion dollars) - Director: Ken Russell , with Michael Caine, Karl Malden , Oskar Homolka, Françoise Dorléac and Donald Sutherland
- 1968 Only When I Larf - Director: Basil Dearden, With: Richard Attenborough and David Hemmings
- 1969 - Oh! What a Lovely War - Director: Richard Attenborough
- 1976 Spy Story Director: Lindsay Shonteff
- 1995 - The Palmer Files: Der Rote Tod ( Len Deighton's Bullett to Bejing ) - directed by George Mihalka, with: Michael Caine and Jason Connery
- 1996 - The Palmer Files: Lords of the Apocalypse ( Len Deighton's Mindnight in St. Petersburg ) - Director: Doug Jackson, with: Michael Caine and Jason Connery
Web links
- Literature by and about Len Deighton in the catalog of the German National Library
- Len Deighton in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
- Len Deighton in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Works by and about Len Deighton at Open Library
- Complete overview of works and biography
- Len Deighton Fantastic Fiction Bibliography
- In good faith crime thriller couch
notes
- ^ German partial print: Command post Hannibal Eins, in reading pleasure. Eds. Clare Francis, Ondine Upton. Bertelsmann Club (license Wilhelm Goldmann), Gütersloh 1997 (without ISBN) pp. 83–96
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Deighton, Len |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Deighton, Leonard Cyril (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British photographer and author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 18, 1929 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |