Len Deighton

'The new crime and espionage series from Penguin Classics makes for a mouth-watering prospect' Daily TelegraphThe Second World War is over. Germany have won the battle. But the fight goes on...It is November 1941, nine months after the Nazis successfully invaded Britain. Churchill has been executed and the King imprisoned in the Tower of London. At Scotland Yard, renowned Detective Inspector Archer just tries to keep his head down. But when what seems a routine murder in a Mayfair flat leads him to something far deadlier, Archer becomes caught between his brutal superiors and the British resistance, and drawn into a plot that could change the future of the world.

'Deighton's best book ... an absorbingly exciting spy story that is also a fascinating exercise in might-have-been speculation' The New York TimesBook ReviewIt is 1941 and Germany has won the war. Britain is occupied, Churchill executed and the King imprisoned in the Tower of London. At Scotland Yard, Detective Inspector Archer tries to do his job and keep his head down. But when a body is found in a Mayfair flat, what at first appears to be a routine murder investigation sends him into a world of espionage, deceit and betrayal. 'Len Deighton is the Flaubert of contemporary thriller writers ... this is much the way things would have turned out if the Germans had won' The Times Literary Supplement

A new edition of the celebrated cookery classic, featuring 50 cookstrips that will solve the mysteries of French cuisine and unlock the key to 500 memorable dishes.No one has more logically or appealingly cracked the code to French cookery than Len Deighton. Now, in this redesigned and updated edition, his culinary classic is looking better than ever.Through the minefield of menus and cartes des vins he steers a reassuring course, outlining:* 50 celebrated cookstrips that ingeniously reveal techniques and vital food facts at a glance* a lexique of French/English culinary terms plus a guide to the French menu and wine list* a comprehensive and easy-to-follow chart of sauces* French cheese, charcuterie, butchery and ways with the vegetable!Len Deighton's French Cooking for Men solves the mysteries of French cuisine, while retaining its mystique. Here is everything you want to know about French home cooking presented in a form so usable and appealing you will wonder how you ever got along without it.

"Every page glows with the excitement of discovery . . . wonderful."--Geoff Dyer, The Guardian Drawing on Len Deighton's deep understanding of ordinary soldiers and the strengths and weaknesses of the leaders who sent them into battle, Blood, Tears, and Folly is a sweeping and unflinching history of the darkest days of the Second World War. Rooted in the personal accounts of the soldiers themselves and ranging across six theaters--from the Battle of the Atlantic and the Blitzkrieg of Western Europe to North Africa, the Luftwaffe's air war, the invasion of Russia, and the chain of events that led to Pearl Harbor--Deighton brings a novelist's compassion and a historian's precision to his analysis of the first truly global conflict. The result is military history as it should be written: clear-eyed, technically sophisticated, and deeply human.

"Written with economy and grace . . . often exciting, sometimes eerie, always sad."--Evening Standard Len Deighton's only collection of short fiction explores the devastating experiences of soldiers across twenty-three centuries of warfare, from Hannibal's march on Rome to the jungles of Vietnam. Across these sharp, unsparing stories, Deighton's deep compassion for the ordinary soldier is matched only by his hatred for war and the ways it makes machines of men. His heroes are ordinary people caught in circumstances not of their choosing: a jaded commander of a firing squad sweltering in the heat of the Punjab, a fighter pilot who finds himself flying on the wrong side of history in the skies above France, a belittled Civil War general failing to rally his men against the Confederates. With its twists, shifts in perspective and sudden moral reversals, these stories reveal a master craftsman at work--essential reading for long-time fans, and a perfect introduction for newcomers to Deighton's fiction.

"A blistering read . . . the guessing game continues until the final page."--Time Out In Len Deighton's razor-sharp noir, criminal lawyer Mickey Murphy gets entangled in a complex scam and murder investigation backdropped by a riot-torn Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles, 1992. Mickey Murphy is a rumpled criminal defense attorney scraping by with a shabby office, an ex-wife bleeding him for money, and clients who would plead the Fifth--if only they could count that high. Mickey's world is a precarious balance of dodgy deals and unpaid bills, and his one unrequited passion--for Ingrid, the beautiful wife of his wealthiest client, the enigmatic tycoon Zack Petrovitch--could bring it all crashing down. When Ingrid gets Mickey entangled in an elaborate scam involving bearer bonds, false identities and frozen corpses, things spiral from bad to catastrophic. There's a murder to explain, a raft of eccentrics in the way, and the nagging suspicion that Petrovitch bought Mickey's law firm just to torch it later. Then the Rodney King verdict drops and Los Angeles explodes. And as the city burns, Mickey has to race to work out who's betraying whom before everything goes up in smoke.

History is swamped by patriotic myths about the aerial combat fought between the RAF and the Luftwaffe over the summer of 1940. In his gripping history of the Battle of Britain, Len Deighton draws on a decade of research and his own wartime experiences to puncture these myths and point towards a more objective - and even more inspiring - truth.

January 1942. Rommel's seemingly invincible Afrika Korps is at the gates of Egypt - perhaps soon to threaten Cairo itself.And Rommel has a spy in the city - a source so well-informed that the German commander knows in advance every movement of the allied forces.Amongst the teeming streets and bazaars, the British, led by Major Albert Cutler, must find him. But Cairo is a city of fool's gold, where nothing and nobody, not even Cutler, can be taken at face value.

Marshall Stone is an international superstar and charismatic member of Hollywood's elite. Abundantly blessed with charm, genius and wealth, the one gift he most desires - everlasting youth - seems within his grasp when an eminent writer begins the star's biography. But painful memories and suppressed scandals threaten to expose the fiction of his life. Meanwhile, the biographer is caught up in the big-daddy world where books are properties, films are investments, and ratings are rigged. And he's writing about a brilliant star who will do almost anything to remain untarnished.

Three con artists are on the make, and making millions. There's Silas, the leader, slick and self-assured; Liz, his glamorous lover; and Bob, the young cockney upstart (who's also falling for Liz). As this uneasy trio's swindles take them from New York high-rises to sixties London, corrupt governments to, finally, the ultimate con in the Middle East, will their luck start to run out?

'The poet of the spy story' Sunday Times A sunken U-Boat has lain undisturbed on the Atlantic ocean floor since the Second World War - until now. Inside its rusting hull, among the corpses of top-rank Nazis, lie secrets people will kill to obtain. The sequel to Len Deighton's game-changing debut The IPCRESS File, Horse Under Water sees its nameless, laconic narrator sent from fogbound London to the Algarve, where he must dive through layers of deceit in a place rotten with betrayals.

'The master at his peak' Daily Telegraph A Russian scientist is defecting to the West, in order to realize his dreams of contacting extra-terrestrial life among the stars. But when an insubordinate British agent and a top CIA operative are sent to the Sahara desert to bring him in, things don't go to plan. The result is a violent chase stretching across three continents, where loyalties - between spies, partners, nations and lovers - become fatally divided. 'Classic, world-ranging, marvellously knowledgeable ... in a word, quality' The Times'Tightly and complicatedly plotted, so credible in detail' Financial TimesA PATRICK ARMSTRONG NOVEL

'Len Deighton's spy novels are so good they make me sad the Cold War is over' Malcolm Gladwell After six weeks in a nuclear submarine gathering computer data on Soviet activity, the mysterious, bespectacled spy known as Patrick Armstrong is desperate to return home. But when he arrives at his London flat, it appears to be occupied by someone who looks just like him - and he finds himself propelled into the heart of a conspiracy stretching from the remote Scottish highlands to the Arctic ice. Revisiting some of the characters from The IPCRESS File, Spy Story shows military games played out for real, and the Cold War turning dangerously hot. 'Menacing, beguiling ... a vintage Len Deighton thriller' The Times Literary SupplementA PATRICK ARMSTRONG NOVEL