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Len Deighton
Leonard Cyril Deighton (/ˈdeɪtən/ DAY-tən; 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 to 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.
Leonard Cyril Deighton was born in Marylebone, London, on 18 February 1929. His birth was in the infirmary of a workhouse as the local hospital was full. His father was the chauffeur and mechanic for Campbell Dodgson, the Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum; Deighton's mother was a part-time cook. At the time the family lived in Gloucester Place Mews near Baker Street. In 1940, during the Second World War, the eleven-year-old Deighton witnessed the arrest of Anna Wolkoff, a British subject of Russian descent for whom his mother cooked; Wolkoff was detained as a Nazi spy and charged with stealing correspondence between Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Deighton said that observing her arrest was "a major factor in my decision to write a spy story at my first attempt at fiction".
Deighton was educated at St Marylebone Grammar and William Ellis schools, but was moved to an emergency school for part of the Second World War. After leaving school Deighton worked as a railway clerk before being conscripted for national service at the age of 17, which he completed with the Royal Air Force (RAF). While in the RAF he was trained as a photographer, often recording crime scenes with the Special Investigation Branch (SIB) of the military police as part of his duties. During his work with the SIB he learned to fly and became an experienced scuba diver.
After two-and-a-half years with the RAF, Deighton received a demobilisation grant, enabling him to study at Saint Martin's School of Art where he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art; he graduated from the college in 1955. While studying he held a temporary job in 1951 as a pastry chef at the Royal Festival Hall. He worked as a flight attendant for British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) between 1956 and 1957 before becoming a professional illustrator. Much of his work as an illustrator was in advertising—he worked for agencies in New York and London—but he also illustrated magazines and over 200 book covers, including for the first UK edition of Jack Kerouac's 1957 work On the Road.
While he was working at the Royal Festival Hall, Deighton would make sketches to remember some of the steps he took preparing dishes. He developed the idea into the concept of the "cookstrip", a full recipe within a cartoon-style illustration. Following the publication of one of Deighton's cookstrips in the Daily Express in 1961, The Observer commissioned him to provide a weekly series for its own magazine, which he did between March 1962 and August 1966. He later explained:
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Len Deighton
Leonard Cyril Deighton (/ˈdeɪtən/ DAY-tən; 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 to 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.
Leonard Cyril Deighton was born in Marylebone, London, on 18 February 1929. His birth was in the infirmary of a workhouse as the local hospital was full. His father was the chauffeur and mechanic for Campbell Dodgson, the Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum; Deighton's mother was a part-time cook. At the time the family lived in Gloucester Place Mews near Baker Street. In 1940, during the Second World War, the eleven-year-old Deighton witnessed the arrest of Anna Wolkoff, a British subject of Russian descent for whom his mother cooked; Wolkoff was detained as a Nazi spy and charged with stealing correspondence between Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Deighton said that observing her arrest was "a major factor in my decision to write a spy story at my first attempt at fiction".
Deighton was educated at St Marylebone Grammar and William Ellis schools, but was moved to an emergency school for part of the Second World War. After leaving school Deighton worked as a railway clerk before being conscripted for national service at the age of 17, which he completed with the Royal Air Force (RAF). While in the RAF he was trained as a photographer, often recording crime scenes with the Special Investigation Branch (SIB) of the military police as part of his duties. During his work with the SIB he learned to fly and became an experienced scuba diver.
After two-and-a-half years with the RAF, Deighton received a demobilisation grant, enabling him to study at Saint Martin's School of Art where he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art; he graduated from the college in 1955. While studying he held a temporary job in 1951 as a pastry chef at the Royal Festival Hall. He worked as a flight attendant for British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) between 1956 and 1957 before becoming a professional illustrator. Much of his work as an illustrator was in advertising—he worked for agencies in New York and London—but he also illustrated magazines and over 200 book covers, including for the first UK edition of Jack Kerouac's 1957 work On the Road.
While he was working at the Royal Festival Hall, Deighton would make sketches to remember some of the steps he took preparing dishes. He developed the idea into the concept of the "cookstrip", a full recipe within a cartoon-style illustration. Following the publication of one of Deighton's cookstrips in the Daily Express in 1961, The Observer commissioned him to provide a weekly series for its own magazine, which he did between March 1962 and August 1966. He later explained: