Len Deighton, a prolific writer whose tough, stylish spy thrillers featured on bestseller lists for decades, has died. He was 97. Deighton's literary agent, Tim Bates, said Deighton died on Sunday, per the AP. No cause of death was given. Deighton's first novel, The Ipcress File, helped set the tone of cool and gritty 1960s thrillers and was made into a film starring Michael Caine that helped launch both author and actor to long and stellar careers. "Len was a titan," Bates said Tuesday. "He was not only one of the greatest spy and thriller writers of the 20th century, but also one of our greatest writers in any genre."
Born to a working-class family in a wealthy part of London in 1929, Deighton grew up with a keen eye for the intricacies and absurdities of Britain's class system. He served in the Royal Air Force as part of the UK's then-mandatory national service, studied art, and worked as a waiter, pastry chef, and flight attendant before having success as a book and magazine illustrator. He wrote The Ipcress File—the story of a secret agent confronted with duplicity and bureaucracy from his own side while investigating a Soviet kidnap ring—to amuse himself during a vacation. The book was published in 1962 and went on to sell millions of copies, and it was adapted into a 1965 film, with Caine in a star-making performance as Deighton's protagonist, a sardonic working-class sophisticate with a love of gourmet food.
Subsequent thrillers Horse Under Water, Funeral in Berlin, Billion-Dollar Brain, and An Expensive Place to Die all featured the same hero. Funeral in Berlin and Billion-Dollar Brain were both also filmed with Caine in the starring role. Deighton's depiction of espionage as a grubby, error-strewn business was a contrast to the glamour of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. His book's gritty mood synced with the times, and Deighton said he benefited from a backlash against Bond's huge success. He recalled a friend telling him that "you're a blunt instrument that the critics have used to smash Ian Fleming over the head."
Berlin Game, published in 1983, was the first of 10 novels featuring the smart, cynical MI6 officer Bernard Samson; Deighton also set several novels around World War II. He penned more than two dozen novels in all. Deighton also wrote historical nonfiction, including a book about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Another passion was food. Deighton was food correspondent for the Observer newspaper in the 1960s and wrote several cookbooks aimed at men, including 1965's Len Deighton's Action Cook Book, with recipes illustrated like comic strips. Deighton's first marriage, to illustrator Shirley Thompson, ended in divorce. He later married Ysabele de Ranitz, with whom he shared two sons.
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