Leonard Cyril Deighton (18 February 1929 - ) is a British author, best known for his spy novels.
Born in London, Len Deighton served in the RAF before graduating from the Royal College of Art.
Working in New York City as a magazine illustrator he turned his mind to writing his first novel, “The Ipcress File”, published in 1962. The book was a best-seller in the UK, France and the US; the novel sold more than 2.5 million copies in three years.
A subsequent screenplay for a film called “The Ipcress File” was developed in 1965, starring British actor, Michael Caine as the central character, ‘Harry Palmer’.
A TV series was also adapted from the book in 2022.
Deighton wrote a number of other fiction and non-fiction books.
He published two fictional novels retaining the character, ‘Harry Palmer’, namely: “Horse Under Water” (1963) and “Funeral in Berlin” (1964).
Deighton also published the following fictional books:
- “Billion-Dollar Brain” (1966);
- “An Expensive Place to Die” (1967);
- “Only When I Laugh” (1967)
- “Bomber” (1971)
- “Close-Up” (1972)
- “Spy Story” (1974)
- “Yesterday’s Spy” (1975)
- “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Spy / Catch a Falling Spy” (1976)
- “SS-GB” (1978)
- “XPD” (1981)
- “Goodbye, Mickey Mouse” (1982)
- “MAMista” (1991)
- “City of Gold” (1992)
- “Violent Ward” (1993)
Deighton wrote three connected trilogies:
- Berlin Game (1983), Mexico Set (1984) and London Match (1985);
- Spy Hook (1988), Spy Line (1989) and Spy Sinker (1990); and
- Faith (1994), Hope (1995) and Charity (1996); and
Winter (a Berlin Family), a companion novel (written in 1987).
The trilogies are centred on the character “Bernard Samson”, an MI6 intelligence officer.
