“a major factor in my decision to write a spy story at my first attempt at fiction”
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Len Deighton
Leonard Cyril Deighton was a British author. His publications included cookery books and works on history, but he was best known for his spy novels.
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culture · British author (1929–2026) · journalist · historian · novelist · screenwriter · playwright · science fiction writer · photographer · film producer · illustrator · writer · also Len Deighton, Leonard Cyril Deighton, Deighton
Born 18 February 1929 · Died 15 March 2026 · Q505274
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2026· 9 entries
gulftoday: Len Deighton, author of bestselling spy thrillers, dies at 97
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The Guardian: Len Deighton, spy novelist and author of The Ipcress File, dies aged 97
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The Guardian: Len Deighton obituary
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Yahoo: Len Deighton, author of bestselling spy thrillers, dead at 97
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Yahoo: Len Deighton, author who reinvented the spy thriller with his Harry Palmer books
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BBC: Len Deighton obituary: How a cookery cartoonist became a master spy writer
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Died 2026-03-15.
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Deighton died at his home in Guernsey on 15 March 2026, aged 97.
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2021· 1 entry
The Guardian: Why Len Deighton’s spy stories are set to thrill a new generation
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2017· 3 entries
The BBC adapted Deighton's novel SS-GB for a five-part miniseries, broadcast in one-hour episodes; Sam Riley played the lead role of Detective Superintendent Douglas Archer
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“. Radio Times. Retrieved 26 March 2020.”
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Deighton described how he did not consider the character an anti-hero, but "a romantic, incorruptible figure in the mould of Philip Marlowe"
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2016· 1 entry
By 2016 Deighton had retired from writing.
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2014· 1 entry
The Guardian: Len Deighton’s Observer cookstrips, Michael Caine and the 1960s
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2012· 1 entry
The Guardian: New 'tribute' to classic Len Deighton thriller cover brings accusations of plagiarism
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1997· 1 entry
“When old men decided to barter young men for pride and profit, the transaction was called war.”
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1996· 1 entry
Decided to take a year off writing; at the end of the period, he decided that writing was "a mug's game" that he did not miss and did not have to do
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1995· 1 entry
BBC Radio 4 broadcast a real-time dramatisation of Bomber
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1988· 1 entry
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
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1986· 1 entry
Awarded German Crime Fiction Award (1986).
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1983· 1 entry
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)
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1978· 1 entry
By another novel, SS-GB, the idea for which came from Ray Hawkey, Deighton's friend from art school and the designer of the covers of several of his books
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1977· 1 entry
After being advised to do so by the historian A
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1976· 2 entries
Having not lived together for over five years
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Said "I like the research better than I like writing books"
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1970· 1 entry
Deighton wrote Bomber, a fictional account of an RAF Bomber Command raid that goes wrong
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1969· 3 entries
And their work Howdunit, published in 2020, was dedicated to him
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And lived abroad from then on, including in Ireland, Austria, France, the US and Portugal
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But did not enjoy the process of making films, and had his name removed from the film's credits
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1968· 1 entry
Deighton was the producer of the film Only When I Larf, which was based on his novel of the same name
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1965· 2 entries
Len Deighton's Action Cook Book (a collection of his cookstrips from The Observer) and Où est le garlic (Where is the garlic), a collection of French recipes
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As Len Deighton's Action Cook Book, the first of five cookery books he wrote
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1964· 1 entry
Deighton "established a place for himself
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1962· 2 entries
Deighton's first novel, The IPCRESS File, was published; it had been written in 1960 while he was staying in the Dordogne, south west France
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And was a critical and commercial success
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1961· 1 entry
The Observer commissioned him to provide a weekly series for its own magazine, which he did between March 1962 and August 1966
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1955· 1 entry
Studied at Royal College of Art (1955).
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1951· 1 entry
As a pastry chef at the Royal Festival Hall
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1949· 1 entry
Studied at Saint Martin's School of Art (1949).
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1940· 1 entry
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 stealin
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1929· 1 entry
Born 1929-02-18.
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