More coherent than the first book, at least this time everything we are told is relevant to the espionage plot. Deighton still conceals much important information, but what he reveals and what he hides seems more deliberate this time, and there are at least three incorrect explanations as to why everybody is so interested in the sunken submarine until all is revealed in the end.
Deighton's descriptions of the Algarve are detailed and tactile, he really has a sense of place. The first book had long passages of very specific London geography, and I gather his descriptions of Berlin in later books are just as good.
Did Saltzman not adapt this one maybe because all the diving content was too similar to Thunderball?
In the last couple of years I've read Deighton's 'Game, Set and Match' trilogy and am looking forward to getting into the 'Hook, Line and Sinker' trilogy. I also re-read The Ipcress File earlier this year, and I've been meaning to get around to Horse Under Water for ages now. I've never read it before and your post has just reminded me that I need to bump it up near the top of my ever-lengthening 'to-read' list.
In the last couple of years I've read Deighton's 'Game, Set and Match' trilogy and am looking forward to getting into the 'Hook, Line and Sinker' trilogy. I also re-read The Ipcress File earlier this year, and I've been meaning to get around to Horse Under Water for ages now. I've never read it before and your post has just reminded me that I need to bump it up near the top of my ever-lengthening 'to-read' list.
I should be interested in your thoughts on IPCRESS and Deighton's later books. I've never read him before, and am mighty entertained so far.
If I give him heck for concealing information and seeming to tell the wrong story, well that's what he does and there may be reason for it, its not necessarily because he's a sloppy storyteller.
I found this indepth analysis of Deighton's literary technique, specifically in Horse Under Water. The reviewer argues all the "inconsequential detail" is part of the Unnamed Protagonists' training, that he is trained to be a dispassionate observor as part of his job and takes in all sensory data and assesses it objectively, whether it is apparantly relevant to his mission or not. Any of the seemingly random observations he makes could be a clue or could save his life.
The reviewer compares the effect of this technique to cubism! In that no detail is priveleged over any other, whether it pertains to the presumed plot or not, and that all facets of the Protagonist's experience are given equal weight.
That might not be so crazy. Deighton is the artiest of all the spy thriller authors I've read, with his own professional background, his constant namedrropping of hip Jazz musicians and modern artists, and his hands on involvement in the design and layout of his books, with chapter headings forwards and appendices all having a visual role in the experience of deciphering his books.
So does his storytelling get any more conventional in his later novels?
It was intended to be the 4th film in the Harry Palmer series. Michael Caine was no longer under contract, and the returns for Billion Dollar Brain (the 3rd film) hadn't been impressive. Saltzman initially planned to recast with Nigel Davenport but couldn't raise the money.
I should be interested in your thoughts on IPCRESS and Deighton's later books. I've never read him before, and am mighty entertained so far.
If I give him heck for concealing information and seeming to tell the wrong story, well that's what he does and there may be reason for it, its not necessarily because he's a sloppy storyteller.
I first tackled The IPCRESS File about 12 years ago, not long after I had discovered the Harry Palmer films. I enjoyed it up to a point, but once the action moved to the atoll I started to get a bit confused and lost interest a bit. Subsequently I read Funeral in Berlin and enjoyed that one more.
I then didn't read any more Deighton for about 10 years until I picked up Berlin Game, the first book in the Bernard Samson series. Berlin Game is terrific. Classic Cold War stuff involving defection, crossing borders, running agents in enemy territory. And structurally I'd say it is pretty conventional. It has a great Cold War Berlin atmosphere and an excellent cast of characters. Samson is a middle aged operator who grew up in Berlin, and often works with his childhood friend Werner Volkmann. Samson's relationship with his superiors is often a bit strained, particularly his immediate superior Dicky Cruyer who is one of the most memorable characters. Samson's wife is also a key character.
Like the 'Palmer' novels, Samson narrates in the first person so we get a lot of his opinion about the incompetence of people like Cruyer, as well as some wistful passages expressing his love of Berlin. Spy Sinker, the sixth novel in the series (which I haven't read yet), shifts the narration to third person and from what I've been told, this shift throws some doubt on Samson's reliability as a narrator so I'm looking forward to reading that one. From my experience of Deighton so far, I prefer the Bernard Samson novels, and as a nine part series it makes a rather impressive saga, with a strong continuing story running through it. I definitely recommend you give them a try.
It was intended to be the 4th film in the Harry Palmer series. Michael Caine was no longer under contract, and the returns for Billion Dollar Brain (the 3rd film) hadn't been impressive. Saltzman initially planned to recast with Nigel Davenport but couldn't raise the money.
thanks Barbel, lot of good info and discussion about the films in that thread.
I've been looking for the three films on dvd for some time now, they're elusive.
Strange considering Michael Caine is still a popular actor, and those are some of the films that made his reputation.
More like next book I'm going to read ..... Today I was in a second-hand book store looking for Christmas gifts (I'm finished buying all the gifts - jay me! ) and Dusko Popov's autobiography "Spy - counterspy" cought my eye. Popov was one of the most important spies in MI5's Double Cross system. He is often mentioned as an inspiration for James Bond and I can see why. Playboy, womanizer, gambler, loved to drive fast cars and skiing, a crack pistol shot, knew five languages and an international spy :007)
I'll write a review when I'm fininshed reading.
I just finished The Inscrutable Charlie Muffin, book number 3 in Brian Freemantle's Charlie Muffin series. Charlie Muffin is a memorable fictional spy, scruffy, a bit insubordinate and unorthodox. The first book in the series was one of the most memorable spy thrillers I've read in recent years, and both of the subsequent books have been thrilling reads. The style of writing is very simple, no flowery descriptions, and no wasted words, and the chapters often end with a hook that gets you eager to continue reading. This novel also has a nice Bondian connection - the plot is centred around a luxury liner that is being converted into a university by a Hong Kong businessman and moored in Hong Kong harbour, until it mysteriously catches alight and partially sinks - much like the Queen Elizabeth which features in the TMWTGG film.
Indeed his descriptions of Berlin are excellent, completely unglamorous. A grey utilitarian city full of shadowy backalleys, with a river flowing through you would never notice. As he points out, in any other city it would be the river that divides a city in two. And every last random passerby is some sort of for-profit triple agent.
There is also a detour to Prague that makes that city sound quite beautiful.
For the first time there are chapters from other characters points of view, basically one for each of the suspicious supporting characters our unnamed protagonist is forced to cooperate with. Each reveals aspects of character our unnamed protagonist did not notice, sometime humourously contradicting what he just told us. And I don't think any of these digressions give any clues as to what's really up, the real clues are hidden elsewhere.
This book (published 1964) begs comparison with the Spy Who Came in With the Cold (1963). They both deal with the problem of getting someone across the Wall, and in both stories there are layers upon layers of treachery the protagonist is unaware of until the end, and both make a game of concealing crucial information from the reader.
Le Carre told a more elegant story, with a genuinely tragic shock ending (I still think its his best book I've read), Deighton is much much much more complicated, but at the end I care little about the characters, instead I am impressed by how he did indeed scatter all the clues throughout the book while misdirecting.
The Berlin wall had only been built three years previous, so its no surprise it would provide appealing subject matter to all the big spy writers. Fleming had a similar story too: it was even originally titled Berlin Escape!
This is the autobiography of the Serbian triple agent who served as part of the MI6 and Abwehr during World War II, and passed off disinformation to Germany as part of the Double-Cross System and working also as agent for the Yugoslav government-in-exile in London. I honestly can't say if Popov is 100% true to the facts in this book, but I know It's well documented that he was a very important in the espionage game he was playing. I can say he's a good writer who knows how to make a story exciting. Popov has been mentioned as one of the possible inspirations for James Bond and it's easy to see why: He describes a world of danger, espionage, beautiful women, fast cars, luxury hotels and high stakes gambling. Popov even describes an experience with Ian Fleming in a Casino in Portugal. In fact I've never read a non-Bond book that feels as Bondian as this one. I can recomend it highly to any Bond fan!
Ma'am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown
This has been renamed on Amazon with the strap as The hilarious, bestselling royal biography, perfect for fans of The Crown to cash in on the Netflix series, but there's no need. This is brilliant.
'Now why is Nap recommending a bio of a late royal?' some of you might puzzle. Now, Brown is possibly the wittiest journalist in Britain today, he writes for the satirical magazine Private Eye - superb spoofs of the supposed great and good - and also for the Daily Mail, though he seems above the newspaper itself, which is not to everyone's taste.
Brown's book is not a conventional bio, though it is in chronological order. It's a bit like those History of the Napoleonic War in 50 Objects books... each chapter is a bize-sized chunk. In this case the stories are anecdotal, and there's a lot here because Margaret really was an all-out cow on occasion and stories are legion about her outrageous rudeness whenever the mood took her. Being fond of the party life, all sorts pop up in her chequered life, including Cecil Beaton, Gore Vidal, Peter Sellers and the Beatles, who get their own chapters here, based on their interaction with her.
What Brown has picked up on is that Margaret had a walk-on part in many of the diaries of these old queens, such as Noel Coward, Beaton and Vidal, who often would sum her up with withering, waspish scorn, while being charming to her in person. Brown collates all these stories and more. If he often damns Margaret, it is also a damnation of our country and it's society, in that so many people are taken in with the Royal cult and go along with her awful behaviour.
It is a real eye-opener.
The bite-size chapter format allows the author to overthink and overwrite, often with great insight and comic effect. Often you can judge a book by its footnotes - the fictional Flashman Chronicles do this to great effect - and there's one savage footnote regarding the Queen Mother's behaviour towards her staff which will make you think ill of her.
Brown has a book on the Beatles out this spring, so I'll certainly be looking out for that.
Lots of globetrotting in this one: Helsinki > Leningrad > Latvia > Greenwich Village and Wall Street > San Antonio and back again. I particularly liked the Greenwich Village content, but that's because its the only location I've seen in real life. Still, Deighton is credited with his invocations of mod London, so a trip to mid60s Greenwich Village is relevant.
Features two characters returning from the previous book: Harvey Newbegin, who is much more of a loudtalking con-artist than he was when we first met him; and Colonel Stok, probably my favourite character who definitely deserves more pages.
I think Deighton was already assuming his books would get filmed, as the scenes in San Antonio and Wall Street seem conceived with Ken Adam set design in mind.
But all those Ken Adam potential setpieces are ultimately irrelevant, having nothing to do with the story's resolution, which is rather more personal. wikipedia claims this book is a labyrinth full of "dead-ends" and the bit we Bondfans might assume to be the most important turns out to be one of those dead ends.
That's all the Deighton for me, for now. That's all his books I have, and most sources state these are the four books about the character whose name isn't Harry. Though Wikipedia thinks An Expensive Place to Die is part of the same series.
I found a good Deighton fansite, with lots of original interviews with Deighton himself. In one of those interviews, he states he had to invent a new unnamed protagonist because of copyright reasons (meaning what, maybe Saltzman owned any stories about the Palmer character even when he didn't have a name?)
[Q:] Is the character called "Pat Armstrong" in "Spy Story" really the unnamed protagonist from the early "Secret File" novels? There seems to be evidence both for and against, but I'd like to hear Len's view. Pat seems to me to have a lot in common with "Harry Palmer", whereas the unnamed hero of "An Expensive Place to Die" seems like a very different person.
Len: I was asked to use different names for the books because of the legal implications of 'character rights'. I took advantage of this in adapting their characters and their past history. Yes, the man in Expensive Place to Die is not quite Harry Palmer. But, generally, they are the same basic character. Years later, when I started planning the Bernard Samson stories I created a completely different character. I wanted a family man with a more complex attitude to his life and his work.
He also talks a bit about his involvement with the From Russia With Love film on that page.
I think he was just being cagey. The character in "Spy Story" has a former boss, Dawlish, who was "Palmer"'s boss (Dawlish isn't in AEPTD) and when they run into each other after some years it's clear that "Patrick Armstrong" is simply a cover name like "Edmond Dorf" or "Liam Dempsey" had been in FIB and BDB when Dawlish says
"Armstrong. It's a good name. Did you consider "Louis" to go with it?"
I'm paraphrasing from memory here. Our old friend Colonel Stok turns up as well, and it's clear that he and "Armstrong" know each other. I therefore think there's strong textual evidence for "Armstrong" being simply a name chosen by "Palmer" when he leaves W.O.O.C. (P.).
OK I better look for that one too. If Dawlish and Stok are in it, then its gotta count as part of the series.
Stok is a bit like our General Gogol, except way more funny and dangerous.
I'm also reading a bit of Deighton at the moment - I'm just past half way through Spy Hook. I'm really enjoying my return to the Bernard Samson series, revisiting many of the familiar characters from the first trilogy (Game, Set and Match). The juxtaposition of the domestic and the professional elements of Bernard's life are one of the things that I find really interesting in these novels and I love Samson's acerbic comments and observations.
I think he was just being cagey. The character in "Spy Story" has a former boss, Dawlish, who was "Palmer"'s boss (Dawlish isn't in AEPTD) and when they run into each other after some years it's clear that "Patrick Armstrong" is simply a cover name like "Edmond Dorf" or "Liam Dempsey" had been in FIB and BDB when Dawlish says
"Armstrong. It's a good name. Did you consider "Louis" to go with it?"
I'm paraphrasing from memory here. Our old friend Colonel Stok turns up as well, and it's clear that he and "Armstrong" know each other. I therefore think there's strong textual evidence for "Armstrong" being simply a name chosen by "Palmer" when he leaves W.O.O.C. (P.).
This blog article from the Deighton Dossier might be of interest in this conversation regarding the protagonist of Spy Story. I haven't read the novel myself, but I nonetheless find the whole discussion quite intriguing. While there seems to be evidence to suggest that Armstrong might be "Harry", Len Deighton's quote in an introduction written for a re-printing of the novel is that ""Patrick Armstrong is not the man from The Ipcress File, although he's obviously a close relative."
The Samson series I read along with the Bride and a sister-in-law (not all at once- we passed the books around) and thoroughly enjoyed. However, I don't fancy reading them all again which is unlike the unnamed agent series- I've read them many times and hope to do so again eventually.
Methinks Deighton doth protest too much as to the exact identity of his anonymous protagonist(s). There are times when it is clearly a different man (eg "Yesterday's Spy") and times when if it isn't then why (as above)? Unless of course there is a rights issue as caractacus suggests above.
I'd compare it to Fleming writing a book about a British agent who drinks vodka martinis (shaken not stirred), uses a Walther PPK, answers to a boss called "M", and then denying that it's about James Bond.
This blog article from the Deighton Dossier might be of interest in this conversation regarding the protagonist of Spy Story. I haven't read the novel myself, but I nonetheless find the whole discussion quite intriguing. While there seems to be evidence to suggest that Armstrong might be "Harry", Len Deighton's quote in an introduction written for a re-printing of the novel is that ""Patrick Armstrong is not the man from The Ipcress File, although he's obviously a close relative."
That website is a really good resource, and its basically official, with lots of input from Deighton himself. It complements the style of his books, that not only do we have to read appendices and decipher chapter headings to balance out the unreliability of the narrator, but we should also be consulting this website. And some of the Deighton quotes in one part of the website contradict other quotes. like its not just the unnamed protagonist who's the unreliable narrator.
Plus of course lots of great graphics and background detail on the publishing history of the books.
That website is a really good resource, and its basically official, with lots of input from Deighton himself. It complements the style of his books, that not only do we have to read appendices and decipher chapter headings to balance out the unreliability of the narrator, but we should also be consulting this website. And some of the Deighton quotes in one part of the website contradict other quotes. like its not just the unnamed protagonist who's the unreliable narrator.
Plus of course lots of great graphics and background detail on the publishing history of the books.
If you haven't listened to the Spybrary podcast I highly recommend you give it a listen. The first episode was an interview with Rob Mallows who runs the Deighton Dossier. He spoke quite a bit about how he came to have Len's endorsement and meet him on a number of occasions. He's also appeared on a number of subsequent Spybrary episodes, although these discussions have been quite Samson-centric and not so much about the unnamed spy.
Has anyone read Ben Macintyre's new book "The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War"?
I wasn't aware of it until ten minutes ago, but he writes very well on topics I like. This one is about a KGB defector who revealed several of their agents in the West, including one with a great name who's story reminds me of Vesper Lynd.
Is the book as good as it should be?
"Upheaval. Turning points for nations in crisis" by Jared Diamond.
The author is an American geographer, historian, anthropologist, and writer best known for his popular science books. Perhaps "Guns , germs and steel" is still his best known work.
This book is about nations who faced crisis and how they handled them (Japan, Finland, Indonesia, Chile, Australia, Germany)
Challenges like Finlands relationships with the USSR after WWII, Australia's change from trying to be an all-white European nation on the other side of the globe and Japan's transformations after brutal meetings with the outside world are discussed.
The last chapters focus on the strenghts and problems USA are having right now and the problems the entire world is facing.
In Diamonds opinion the biggest problem in USA today is the lack of will to compromise in politics. He mentions President Reagan and the oposition leader Tipp o'Neil back in the 1980's. Obviously they had different political views, but both understood the other had the right to have their opinions and compromise often is the best way to get things done in a democracy. This wisdom is almost gone now. In Obama's first term the Republicans used the filibuster more times than the total number of filibusters in the previous 220 years. They blocked as many of his nominations to offices as they could. Not only obviously politically important officies like Supreme Court judges, but even leaders of scientific offices. The will to cooperate and compromise hasn't improved during the Trump administration. Compromise is a key factor in a Democracy, so this is bad news.
The low voter turnout in elections (why is there still voter registration in the US? Surely being a citizen of the right age should be enough?), the escalating cost of election campaigns and the importance of money in politics, increasing economical differences in the population and the low economic mobility (People in the US has the lowest chance of going from rags to riches than people in any other major democracy) and finally the low government investments in education, infrastructure and scientific research. The author is worried the US democracy may be under treath.
This is a well-written and thought-provoking book on very important issues. Diamond has the ability to write about important and complex issues in an entertaining and understandable way. Highly recomended.
Moonraker, by... er... I'm sure the name will come to me.
For no reason whatsoever, I decided to take a break from working my way through George R.R. Martin's "A Song Of Ice And Fire" series (it's bleedin' huge. Longer than "Lord Of The Rings") so I picked up an old favourite.
...and was glad that I did. It's one of Fleming's best, as I'm hardly the first to say, with a top-notch villain, insights into Bond's daily life, a classic gambling scene, M's most extensive part (in the books- SF perhaps beats it), etc.
It's been too long since I've read the Bond novels- time to do them all again... Fleming, anyway.
"Upheaval. Turning points for nations in crisis" by Jared Diamond.
I'll have to look for this one. I liked Guns Germs & Steel, and Collapse.
In fact, I been thinking about Guns Germs & Steel these past couple weeks, what with coronavirus and all, and the recent ebola scare. That epidemiology's interesting stuff, these little microbes using us oh-so-smart humans as their raw materials to cross oceans and conquer the world.
Moonraker, by... er... I'm sure the name will come to me.
I'm sure if I think for a few minutes I will be able to remember the author's name.
I've also been slowly returning to the Fleming books over the last 18 months or so, revisiting them one a time. This time though, I've been doing so via audiobooks and Moonraker was one of the ones that I listened to not longer ago. A real classic novel, and still thrilling after several read-throughs over the years. The increased presence of M in the first section of the novel is a great strength of the book. Also, I think Drax is one of my favourite Fleming villains.
"Upheaval. Turning points for nations in crisis" by Jared Diamond.
I'll have to look for this one. I liked Guns Germs & Steel, and Collapse.
In fact, I been thinking about Guns Germs & Steel these past couple weeks, what with coronavirus and all, and the recent ebola scare. That epidemiology's interesting stuff, these little microbes using us oh-so-smart humans as their raw materials to cross oceans and conquer the world.
Jared Diamond is great! But a friend of mine who knows Norse Greenland well and has written a critically aclaimed novel about it says there was a mistake in "Collapse". The Greenland Norse did eat fish (they have found fish bones in settelment ruins), contradicting what Diamond wrote.
Published in 1995, Le Carré's first novel after The Night Manager tells the tale of Tim Cranmer, a retired British spy who gets pulled back into the game, in this case because his former star operative Larry Pettifer has disappeared with a large sum of the Russian government's money. Under suspicion from his ex-bosses at MI6 (for being in on the money theft) and from the Bath police (for being involved in Pettifer's disappearance), Cramner follows a trail through an arms dealer in Macclesfield to Paris and ultimately to North Caucasus, where local ethnic groups are fighting off Russian brutalities. Suffice it to say, it is not a happy story.
I missed this one when it came out, so it was an interesting read 20+ years later. The plot structure is quite familiar (ex-spy gets sucked back into unofficial service through no choice of his own) but the backdrop of chaos in post-Cold War Russia was fascinating. I remember reading about places like Chechnya back then, but as an American who was only half paying attention (starting a family, working insane hours, etc.) I lumped a lot of it together with the mess in the Balkans that was going on at the same time. Obviously, they are completely different places, even though the festering tensions have many of the same underlying roots, most notably religion.
All to say, while this is not Le Carré's best (and not as good as The Night Manager, which I read upon publication in 1993), I enjoyed the history refresher. Alas, these conflicts probably are not as much "history" as we might wish.
Comments
In the last couple of years I've read Deighton's 'Game, Set and Match' trilogy and am looking forward to getting into the 'Hook, Line and Sinker' trilogy. I also re-read The Ipcress File earlier this year, and I've been meaning to get around to Horse Under Water for ages now. I've never read it before and your post has just reminded me that I need to bump it up near the top of my ever-lengthening 'to-read' list.
If I give him heck for concealing information and seeming to tell the wrong story, well that's what he does and there may be reason for it, its not necessarily because he's a sloppy storyteller.
I found this indepth analysis of Deighton's literary technique, specifically in Horse Under Water. The reviewer argues all the "inconsequential detail" is part of the Unnamed Protagonists' training, that he is trained to be a dispassionate observor as part of his job and takes in all sensory data and assesses it objectively, whether it is apparantly relevant to his mission or not. Any of the seemingly random observations he makes could be a clue or could save his life.
The reviewer compares the effect of this technique to cubism! In that no detail is priveleged over any other, whether it pertains to the presumed plot or not, and that all facets of the Protagonist's experience are given equal weight.
That might not be so crazy. Deighton is the artiest of all the spy thriller authors I've read, with his own professional background, his constant namedrropping of hip Jazz musicians and modern artists, and his hands on involvement in the design and layout of his books, with chapter headings forwards and appendices all having a visual role in the experience of deciphering his books.
So does his storytelling get any more conventional in his later novels?
At least in his spy novels, anyway- some of the war stories are more conventional in structure.
do you know why Saltzman didnt film Horse Under Water?
Can I refer you to https://www.ajb007.co.uk/topic/46150/the-60s-bond-rivals-2-harry-palmer/ ?
I first tackled The IPCRESS File about 12 years ago, not long after I had discovered the Harry Palmer films. I enjoyed it up to a point, but once the action moved to the atoll I started to get a bit confused and lost interest a bit. Subsequently I read Funeral in Berlin and enjoyed that one more.
I then didn't read any more Deighton for about 10 years until I picked up Berlin Game, the first book in the Bernard Samson series. Berlin Game is terrific. Classic Cold War stuff involving defection, crossing borders, running agents in enemy territory. And structurally I'd say it is pretty conventional. It has a great Cold War Berlin atmosphere and an excellent cast of characters. Samson is a middle aged operator who grew up in Berlin, and often works with his childhood friend Werner Volkmann. Samson's relationship with his superiors is often a bit strained, particularly his immediate superior Dicky Cruyer who is one of the most memorable characters. Samson's wife is also a key character.
Like the 'Palmer' novels, Samson narrates in the first person so we get a lot of his opinion about the incompetence of people like Cruyer, as well as some wistful passages expressing his love of Berlin. Spy Sinker, the sixth novel in the series (which I haven't read yet), shifts the narration to third person and from what I've been told, this shift throws some doubt on Samson's reliability as a narrator so I'm looking forward to reading that one. From my experience of Deighton so far, I prefer the Bernard Samson novels, and as a nine part series it makes a rather impressive saga, with a strong continuing story running through it. I definitely recommend you give them a try.
I've been looking for the three films on dvd for some time now, they're elusive.
Strange considering Michael Caine is still a popular actor, and those are some of the films that made his reputation.
I'll write a review when I'm fininshed reading.
Len Deighton
Indeed his descriptions of Berlin are excellent, completely unglamorous. A grey utilitarian city full of shadowy backalleys, with a river flowing through you would never notice. As he points out, in any other city it would be the river that divides a city in two. And every last random passerby is some sort of for-profit triple agent.
There is also a detour to Prague that makes that city sound quite beautiful.
For the first time there are chapters from other characters points of view, basically one for each of the suspicious supporting characters our unnamed protagonist is forced to cooperate with. Each reveals aspects of character our unnamed protagonist did not notice, sometime humourously contradicting what he just told us. And I don't think any of these digressions give any clues as to what's really up, the real clues are hidden elsewhere.
This book (published 1964) begs comparison with the Spy Who Came in With the Cold (1963). They both deal with the problem of getting someone across the Wall, and in both stories there are layers upon layers of treachery the protagonist is unaware of until the end, and both make a game of concealing crucial information from the reader.
Le Carre told a more elegant story, with a genuinely tragic shock ending (I still think its his best book I've read), Deighton is much much much more complicated, but at the end I care little about the characters, instead I am impressed by how he did indeed scatter all the clues throughout the book while misdirecting.
The Berlin wall had only been built three years previous, so its no surprise it would provide appealing subject matter to all the big spy writers. Fleming had a similar story too: it was even originally titled Berlin Escape!
This is the autobiography of the Serbian triple agent who served as part of the MI6 and Abwehr during World War II, and passed off disinformation to Germany as part of the Double-Cross System and working also as agent for the Yugoslav government-in-exile in London. I honestly can't say if Popov is 100% true to the facts in this book, but I know It's well documented that he was a very important in the espionage game he was playing. I can say he's a good writer who knows how to make a story exciting. Popov has been mentioned as one of the possible inspirations for James Bond and it's easy to see why: He describes a world of danger, espionage, beautiful women, fast cars, luxury hotels and high stakes gambling. Popov even describes an experience with Ian Fleming in a Casino in Portugal. In fact I've never read a non-Bond book that feels as Bondian as this one. I can recomend it highly to any Bond fan!
This has been renamed on Amazon with the strap as The hilarious, bestselling royal biography, perfect for fans of The Crown to cash in on the Netflix series, but there's no need. This is brilliant.
'Now why is Nap recommending a bio of a late royal?' some of you might puzzle. Now, Brown is possibly the wittiest journalist in Britain today, he writes for the satirical magazine Private Eye - superb spoofs of the supposed great and good - and also for the Daily Mail, though he seems above the newspaper itself, which is not to everyone's taste.
Brown's book is not a conventional bio, though it is in chronological order. It's a bit like those History of the Napoleonic War in 50 Objects books... each chapter is a bize-sized chunk. In this case the stories are anecdotal, and there's a lot here because Margaret really was an all-out cow on occasion and stories are legion about her outrageous rudeness whenever the mood took her. Being fond of the party life, all sorts pop up in her chequered life, including Cecil Beaton, Gore Vidal, Peter Sellers and the Beatles, who get their own chapters here, based on their interaction with her.
What Brown has picked up on is that Margaret had a walk-on part in many of the diaries of these old queens, such as Noel Coward, Beaton and Vidal, who often would sum her up with withering, waspish scorn, while being charming to her in person. Brown collates all these stories and more. If he often damns Margaret, it is also a damnation of our country and it's society, in that so many people are taken in with the Royal cult and go along with her awful behaviour.
It is a real eye-opener.
The bite-size chapter format allows the author to overthink and overwrite, often with great insight and comic effect. Often you can judge a book by its footnotes - the fictional Flashman Chronicles do this to great effect - and there's one savage footnote regarding the Queen Mother's behaviour towards her staff which will make you think ill of her.
Brown has a book on the Beatles out this spring, so I'll certainly be looking out for that.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Len Deighton
Lots of globetrotting in this one: Helsinki > Leningrad > Latvia > Greenwich Village and Wall Street > San Antonio and back again. I particularly liked the Greenwich Village content, but that's because its the only location I've seen in real life. Still, Deighton is credited with his invocations of mod London, so a trip to mid60s Greenwich Village is relevant.
Features two characters returning from the previous book: Harvey Newbegin, who is much more of a loudtalking con-artist than he was when we first met him; and Colonel Stok, probably my favourite character who definitely deserves more pages.
I think Deighton was already assuming his books would get filmed, as the scenes in San Antonio and Wall Street seem conceived with Ken Adam set design in mind.
But all those Ken Adam potential setpieces are ultimately irrelevant, having nothing to do with the story's resolution, which is rather more personal. wikipedia claims this book is a labyrinth full of "dead-ends" and the bit we Bondfans might assume to be the most important turns out to be one of those dead ends.
That's all the Deighton for me, for now. That's all his books I have, and most sources state these are the four books about the character whose name isn't Harry. Though Wikipedia thinks An Expensive Place to Die is part of the same series.
I found a good Deighton fansite, with lots of original interviews with Deighton himself. In one of those interviews, he states he had to invent a new unnamed protagonist because of copyright reasons (meaning what, maybe Saltzman owned any stories about the Palmer character even when he didn't have a name?) He also talks a bit about his involvement with the From Russia With Love film on that page.
"Armstrong. It's a good name. Did you consider "Louis" to go with it?"
I'm paraphrasing from memory here. Our old friend Colonel Stok turns up as well, and it's clear that he and "Armstrong" know each other. I therefore think there's strong textual evidence for "Armstrong" being simply a name chosen by "Palmer" when he leaves W.O.O.C. (P.).
Stok is a bit like our General Gogol, except way more funny and dangerous.
Actor Derren Nesbitt as Colonel Stok in the film of "Spy Story"-
I much preferred Oscar Homolka!
This blog article from the Deighton Dossier might be of interest in this conversation regarding the protagonist of Spy Story. I haven't read the novel myself, but I nonetheless find the whole discussion quite intriguing. While there seems to be evidence to suggest that Armstrong might be "Harry", Len Deighton's quote in an introduction written for a re-printing of the novel is that ""Patrick Armstrong is not the man from The Ipcress File, although he's obviously a close relative."
Methinks Deighton doth protest too much as to the exact identity of his anonymous protagonist(s). There are times when it is clearly a different man (eg "Yesterday's Spy") and times when if it isn't then why (as above)? Unless of course there is a rights issue as caractacus suggests above.
I'd compare it to Fleming writing a book about a British agent who drinks vodka martinis (shaken not stirred), uses a Walther PPK, answers to a boss called "M", and then denying that it's about James Bond.
Plus of course lots of great graphics and background detail on the publishing history of the books.
James Bond- Licence To Kill
If you haven't listened to the Spybrary podcast I highly recommend you give it a listen. The first episode was an interview with Rob Mallows who runs the Deighton Dossier. He spoke quite a bit about how he came to have Len's endorsement and meet him on a number of occasions. He's also appeared on a number of subsequent Spybrary episodes, although these discussions have been quite Samson-centric and not so much about the unnamed spy.
I wasn't aware of it until ten minutes ago, but he writes very well on topics I like. This one is about a KGB defector who revealed several of their agents in the West, including one with a great name who's story reminds me of Vesper Lynd.
Is the book as good as it should be?
The author is an American geographer, historian, anthropologist, and writer best known for his popular science books. Perhaps "Guns , germs and steel" is still his best known work.
This book is about nations who faced crisis and how they handled them (Japan, Finland, Indonesia, Chile, Australia, Germany)
Challenges like Finlands relationships with the USSR after WWII, Australia's change from trying to be an all-white European nation on the other side of the globe and Japan's transformations after brutal meetings with the outside world are discussed.
The last chapters focus on the strenghts and problems USA are having right now and the problems the entire world is facing.
In Diamonds opinion the biggest problem in USA today is the lack of will to compromise in politics. He mentions President Reagan and the oposition leader Tipp o'Neil back in the 1980's. Obviously they had different political views, but both understood the other had the right to have their opinions and compromise often is the best way to get things done in a democracy. This wisdom is almost gone now. In Obama's first term the Republicans used the filibuster more times than the total number of filibusters in the previous 220 years. They blocked as many of his nominations to offices as they could. Not only obviously politically important officies like Supreme Court judges, but even leaders of scientific offices. The will to cooperate and compromise hasn't improved during the Trump administration. Compromise is a key factor in a Democracy, so this is bad news.
The low voter turnout in elections (why is there still voter registration in the US? Surely being a citizen of the right age should be enough?), the escalating cost of election campaigns and the importance of money in politics, increasing economical differences in the population and the low economic mobility (People in the US has the lowest chance of going from rags to riches than people in any other major democracy) and finally the low government investments in education, infrastructure and scientific research. The author is worried the US democracy may be under treath.
This is a well-written and thought-provoking book on very important issues. Diamond has the ability to write about important and complex issues in an entertaining and understandable way. Highly recomended.
For no reason whatsoever, I decided to take a break from working my way through George R.R. Martin's "A Song Of Ice And Fire" series (it's bleedin' huge. Longer than "Lord Of The Rings") so I picked up an old favourite.
...and was glad that I did. It's one of Fleming's best, as I'm hardly the first to say, with a top-notch villain, insights into Bond's daily life, a classic gambling scene, M's most extensive part (in the books- SF perhaps beats it), etc.
It's been too long since I've read the Bond novels- time to do them all again... Fleming, anyway.
In fact, I been thinking about Guns Germs & Steel these past couple weeks, what with coronavirus and all, and the recent ebola scare. That epidemiology's interesting stuff, these little microbes using us oh-so-smart humans as their raw materials to cross oceans and conquer the world.
I'm sure if I think for a few minutes I will be able to remember the author's name.
I've also been slowly returning to the Fleming books over the last 18 months or so, revisiting them one a time. This time though, I've been doing so via audiobooks and Moonraker was one of the ones that I listened to not longer ago. A real classic novel, and still thrilling after several read-throughs over the years. The increased presence of M in the first section of the novel is a great strength of the book. Also, I think Drax is one of my favourite Fleming villains.
Jared Diamond is great! But a friend of mine who knows Norse Greenland well and has written a critically aclaimed novel about it says there was a mistake in "Collapse". The Greenland Norse did eat fish (they have found fish bones in settelment ruins), contradicting what Diamond wrote.
Published in 1995, Le Carré's first novel after The Night Manager tells the tale of Tim Cranmer, a retired British spy who gets pulled back into the game, in this case because his former star operative Larry Pettifer has disappeared with a large sum of the Russian government's money. Under suspicion from his ex-bosses at MI6 (for being in on the money theft) and from the Bath police (for being involved in Pettifer's disappearance), Cramner follows a trail through an arms dealer in Macclesfield to Paris and ultimately to North Caucasus, where local ethnic groups are fighting off Russian brutalities. Suffice it to say, it is not a happy story.
I missed this one when it came out, so it was an interesting read 20+ years later. The plot structure is quite familiar (ex-spy gets sucked back into unofficial service through no choice of his own) but the backdrop of chaos in post-Cold War Russia was fascinating. I remember reading about places like Chechnya back then, but as an American who was only half paying attention (starting a family, working insane hours, etc.) I lumped a lot of it together with the mess in the Balkans that was going on at the same time. Obviously, they are completely different places, even though the festering tensions have many of the same underlying roots, most notably religion.
All to say, while this is not Le Carré's best (and not as good as The Night Manager, which I read upon publication in 1993), I enjoyed the history refresher. Alas, these conflicts probably are not as much "history" as we might wish.