British spy author Len Deighton dies at 97
British author Len Deighton, best known for his influential spy novels, has died at the age of 97, News.Az reports, citing BBC.
Deighton rose to prominence with his 1962 novel The Ipcress File, which was later adapted into a BAFTA-winning film starring Michael Caine. The story was also remade as an ITV series in recent years, featuring Joe Cole of Peaky Blinders.
Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, The Ipcress File explored themes such as brainwashing and nuclear weapons development. Unlike the glamorous world of James Bond, Deighton’s protagonists were often ordinary, working-class figures who grappled with bureaucracy and internal inefficiencies.
Beyond fiction, Deighton wrote several historical works on the Second World War. He was also known for his cookery writing, playing a role in popularizing French cuisine in the United Kingdom.
A keen illustrator, he was also responsible for more than 200 book covers, including the first UK edition of Jack Kerouac's On The Road.
No cause of death was given.
Leonard Cyril Deighton was born in Marylebone, London on 18 February 1929. He came into the world in the sick bay for a workhouse, as the local hospital was full.
His parents worked for a wealthy family, his mother as a cook and his father as a chauffeur.
In 1940, he saw his mother's client - Anna Wolkoff - dragged off by the British Security Services and accused of being a wartime Nazi spy.
"It was a major factor in my decision to write a spy story at my first attempt at fiction," the author later recalled.
He hated school and his exasperated father told him that he would stop punishing him for bad reports if he applied himself to reading.
The young Len still played truant but took himself down to the local library where he would often read all day.
"A terrible kind of sedentary childhood I had, when I think about it," he said.
He did his National Service in the RAF - where he learned spy skills including photography, flying and scuba-diving - before working for brief periods as a railway clerk and an air steward.
News.Az
By Nijat Babayev
