Len Deighton

Životopis - Len Deighton:

Leonard Cyril Deighton (born 18 February 1929), known as Len Deighton, is a British writer of novels, military history, screenplays, cookery writing, and also a graphic artist. He is perhaps most famous for his spy novels from the 1960s and 1970s, beginning with The IPCRESS File, which was made into a film starring Michael Caine as Harry Palmer.

Deighton was born in Marylebone, London, in 1929. His father was a chauffeur and mechanic for Campbell Dodgson, and his mother was a part-time cook. At the time they lived in Gloucester Place Mews near Baker Street.

Deighton's interest in spy stories may have been partially inspired by the arrest of Anna Wolkoff, which he witnessed as an 11-year-old boy. Wolkoff, a British subject of Russian descent, was a Nazi spy and next door neighbour of the Deightons. She was detained on 20 May 1940 and subsequently convicted of violating the Official Secrets Act for attempting to pass secret documents to the Nazis.

After leaving St Marylebone Grammar School, Deighton worked as a railway clerk before performing his National Service, which he spent as a photographer for the Royal Air Force. He flew in Mosquito fighters and Lancaster bombers, and later used these experiences when writing his novel Bomber. He also did laboratory work for the Special Investigation Branch. After discharge from the RAF, he studied at Saint Martin's School of Art in London in 1949, and in 1952 won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1955. While he was at the RCA he became a "lifelong friend" of fellow designer Raymond Hawkey, who later designed covers for his early books. Deighton then worked as an airline steward with BOAC. Before he began his writing career he worked as an illustrator in New York and, in 1960, as an art director in a now defunct London advertising agency, Robert Sharp & Partners. He illustrated the British first edition cover for Kerouac's On the Road. He has since used his drawing skills to illustrate a number of his own military history books.

Following the success of his first novels, Deighton became The Observer's cookery writer and produced illustrated cookbooks. In September 1967 he wrote an article in the Sunday Times Magazine about Operation Snowdrop, an SAS attack on Benghazi during the Second World War. The following year David Stirling would be awarded substantial damages in libel from the article.

He also wrote travel guides and became travel editor of Playboy, before becoming a film producer. After producing a film adaption of his 1968 novel Only When I Larf, Deighton bought the film rights to Joan Littlewood and Theatre Workshop's stage musical Oh, What a Lovely War!. Deighton (whose father served throughout the First World War) wrote the screenplay, taking the action to Brighton’s piers, adding a star-studded prologue and creating the memorable closing sequence of seemingly unending crosses. Deighton, although uncredited, was also the producer of the film. He had his name removed because he was “angry and appalled that people should ask credit for things they had not done”, a move that he later described as "stupid and infantile". That was his last involvement with the cinema.

Deighton's 1977 Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain was said by Albert Speer (once Hitler's Minister of Armaments) to be "an excellent, most thorough examination. I read page after page with fascination." The piece was furnished with a comment by A. J. P. Taylor simply saying: "Brilliant analysis."

Blitzkrieg, his history of the rise of the Nazis and the fall of France, has a foreword written by General Walter Nehring (Chief of Staff to General Heinz Guderian). His most recent history book is Blood, Tears and Folly: An Objective Look at World War II. It corrected many myths and was warmly received, “an absolute landmark”, said Jack Higgins. (Založil/a: Gallienus)