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Post by ripper on Nov 19, 2018 10:07:50 GMT
Len Deighton has written several series of espionage thrillers praised for their grounding in reality. His most famous is the Harry Palmer series, though it should be noted that in the books the spy character is nameless; it is only in those novels that were filmed that he gets the name Harry Palmer (played by Michael Caine). Bernard Samson is another character that featured in a series of three book trilogies: the Game, Set and Match trilogy; the Hook, Line and Sinker trilogy; and the Faith, Hope and Charity trilogy. Most of Deighton's books are set during the Cold War of the 60s, 70s and 80s, with Berlin being a frequent setting. His style is closer to that of Le Carre than to Fleming, with characters never being quite sure who they can trust and departmental politics complicating matters. He also wrote Fighter and Bomber, the former being a history of the Battle of Britain and the latter a fictionalised account of the last mission of a Lancaster.
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ltd
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 15
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Post by ltd on Feb 9, 2020 22:49:07 GMT
The first three Samson novels are great. A trilogy I find myself returning to, often at Christmas when they help fill in the inevitable longuers of the season. The subsequent books have their moments but do seem to become increasingly preposterous e,g the Stasi bloke who turns up at SIS offices trying to get the pickled hand back, or the lorry driver who tries to kill Bernard when he's hitching, is he KGB, one of his own side who think he knows too much, or just some random psycho? Deighton never bothers to explain.
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Post by ripper on Feb 17, 2020 10:47:50 GMT
The first three Samson novels are great. A trilogy I find myself returning to, often at Christmas when they help fill in the inevitable longuers of the season. The subsequent books have their moments but do seem to become increasingly preposterous e,g the Stasi bloke who turns up at SIS offices trying to get the pickled hand back, or the lorry driver who tries to kill Bernard when he's hitching, is he KGB, one of his own side who think he knows too much, or just some random psycho? Deighton never bothers to explain. I agree that the Game, Set and Match trilogy is the best of the bunch. I like the departmental politics and rivalries that mean that Bernard has to watch his back as well as trying to outwit the KGB etc, and, of course, there's the ultimate betrayal that he has to face. Have you tried any of Adam Hall's Quiller series? There is the same first-person narrative as with the Deighton books, with more action and an even greater sense that Quiller cannot trust his own side; he is only too aware that they might sacrifice him to gain an advantage. Indeed, in one book his own department rig a car bomb to kill him.
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Post by samdawson on Feb 18, 2020 13:29:07 GMT
I always think that Deighton, like David Nobbs, has never received the recognition he deserved because of being a genre writer. (If Nobbs had written Going Gently under a female pseudonym I'm sure it would have won awards). Deighton's first four (Ipcress, Horse, Funeral, Brain) aren't just great thrillers, they're exquisitely well-written: terse, short-sentenced, slightly knowing. And great travelogues. They were also clearly the nearest he came to being considered a writer of literary fiction; I like the Life review on the first paperbacks: 'Next, big soft girls will read Len Deighton aloud in jazz workshops.' His later works might not be quite so extraordinary, but are never less than readable, and his military history is always rewarding. I just wish he'd get put up there as one of the great UK modern writers. I thoroughly agree about the Adam Hall books. If you like those and Deighton you might also like Gavin Lyall, starting with The Wrong Side of the Sky, the first of many novels by him, usually narrated by very similarly-named, world-weary, pistol-admiring pilots (and later spies/soldiers), often with terrifying, but very 1960s, drinking habits.
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ltd
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 15
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Post by ltd on Feb 18, 2020 17:47:56 GMT
Thanks for the recommedations Ripper and Sam, I'll put both Adam Hall and Gavin Lyall on the "to read" list. My only experience of Quiller is the film with George Segal which I thought was good, scripted with subtle menace by the late Harold Pinter.
One of the things I like about Deighton's Samson novels is that for all that he's a spy, engaged in dangerous trade, many of Bernard's problems are the same as anyone else's e.g lazy and/or thick colleagues, not earning enough money and friends with troubles of their own that then become his. He is an everyman in a sense.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 18, 2020 18:58:50 GMT
Deighton is still successful where most of his contemporarys have sunk into obscurity. Ted Allbury anyone? Brian Freemantle? Ross Thomas? A lot of Deighton has been filmed. I saw one of the Palmer movies recently again, Funeral in Berlin, and it was still pretty entertaining. I always thought about trying the Samson novels again. Years ago I tried the first one and couldn't get into it.
Also never could get into Adam Hall. He has a certain style, which I found difficult.
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Post by samdawson on Feb 18, 2020 19:29:59 GMT
Talking about authors who don't get the recognition they deserve because they're pigeonholed as spy, or comic authors, there's the not British (but British-educated) Raymond Chandler, who, you realise, wasn't just a great detective story writer, but an outstanding writer, full stop.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 18, 2020 19:52:53 GMT
Talking about authors who don't get the recognition they deserve because they're pigeonholed as spy, or comic authors, there's the not British (but British-educated) Raymond Chandler, who, you realise, wasn't just a great detective story writer, but an outstanding writer, full stop.
I don't know. I am sure that a lot of the people who cite Chandler as one of the most important crime writer - and who have forgotten Hammett - never read a line of him, but it is my impression that he is as often quoted as is Ian Fleming or Le Carré.
No doubt that he is an outstanding writer. I prefer Ross Macdonald whom I re-read fairly often, he is a bit like comfort-food for me, but Chandler's novels are also timeless.
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Post by ripper on Feb 19, 2020 14:17:42 GMT
Thanks for recommending Gavin Lyall, Sam. I don't think I have read anything by him.
Yes, Len Deighton never got the recognition he deserved as a great British writer. He's admired by those who read espionage fiction, but deserves to be appreciated far more widely for his writing.
I also agree that Deighton well illustrates that his characters live in the real world. There's precious little glamour, but lots of grey drabness. Pass Palmer in the street and you wouldn't give him a second look. He also puts Palmer into a world where funding for the organisation he works for is always tight and every penny has to be accounted for, which doubtless is how it is in reality.
Andy, is it Hall's habit of ending a chapter on a cliffhanger then beginning the next some time later so it is not obvious what has happened that puts you off his books?
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Post by andydecker on Feb 19, 2020 21:31:03 GMT
Thanks for recommending Gavin Lyall, Sam. I don't think I have read anything by him. Andy, is it Hall's habit of ending a chapter on a cliffhanger then beginning the next some time later so it is not obvious what has happened that puts you off his books? I don't remember the specifics, I read him so long ago. My impression is that everything seemed so cold and remote. I don't have the novels any longer, but it was the translation. So maybe it was this. In recent years I tried to sample other spy series of the time I knew nothing about. Desmond Cory, Andrew York, Jack Higgins. I was mostly underwhelmed. Also never read Lyall in the past. So I got one of his most acclaimed novels, Midnight plus One, which I enjoyed more. Currently I am getting a few novels of Edward Aarons and Philip Atlee. Aarons was widely translated, and he was also butchered in these editions. He was such a longseller, and even if he wasn't as sophisticated as later writers,he must have done something right.
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Post by ripper on Feb 21, 2020 15:00:04 GMT
Thanks for recommending Gavin Lyall, Sam. I don't think I have read anything by him. Andy, is it Hall's habit of ending a chapter on a cliffhanger then beginning the next some time later so it is not obvious what has happened that puts you off his books? I don't remember the specifics, I read him so long ago. My impression is that everything seemed so cold and remote. I don't have the novels any longer, but it was the translation. So maybe it was this. In recent years I tried to sample other spy series of the time I knew nothing about. Desmond Cory, Andrew York, Jack Higgins. I was mostly underwhelmed. Also never read Lyall in the past. So I got one of his most acclaimed novels, Midnight plus One, which I enjoyed more. Currently I am getting a few novels of Edward Aarons and Philip Atlee. Aarons was widely translated, and he was also butchered in these editions. He was such a longseller, and even if he wasn't as sophisticated as later writers,he must have done something right. It's true that we don't get to know much at all of Quiller's life outside his espionage work, as opposed to, say, Deighton's Samson series. There are hints, for example if he is killed on a mission, his estate goes to a refuge for battered women and a bouquet of roses for Moira, but who's Moira and why such a refuge? Quiller is also a bit more of a superspy as compared to those portrayed in Deighton and Le Carre's books. He's extremely fit and can take on a couple of black belts and beat them in seconds. He's also not short of money as he drives a Jenson in some books as his private car. He's not quite up there with 007 in the glamour stakes, but his personal life and department isn't quite as cash-strapped as that portrayed in Deighton's Harry Palmer adventures. I have read a couple of Jack Higgins Sean Dillon series. They were okay, but I can't say I am a fan. Also tried several of Colin Forbes Tweed novels. Again, they didn't have me coming back for more in a hurry, though I have enjoyed some of his stand-alone novels like Target 5 and Avalanche Express much more.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 21, 2020 17:33:18 GMT
Also tried several of Colin Forbes Tweed novels. Again, they didn't have me coming back for more in a hurry, though I have enjoyed some of his stand-alone novels like Target 5 and Avalanche Express much more. Same here. I read Avalanche Express and The Stone Leopard back in the early 80s and really liked them. I was so disappointed of the lousy movie. Then I concentrated on more "authentic" spy novels and forgot about Forbes. Years later I tried one of the Tweed novels and thought it lame, a shallow and unconvincing spy-thriller. And not very thrilling. Inspired from this conversation, today I pulled Allbeury from the shelves. In the 80s all - or 90% - of his many novels were translated, and I have most of them. Looking forward to a re-read of one or two. Frankly I just remember his pseudo-historical re-tellings of Philby and Blake, which introduced my to this chapter of British history. Back then I was fascinated with these novels, even if his fictional ending of Blake proved to be nonsense a few years later.
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