Len Deighton - A Short Biography

b. London 18th February 1929

Deighton worked as a railway clerk before being called up for National Service in the RAF where he served as a photographer attached to the Special Investigation Branch.

He was discharged in 1949 and went to art school at St. Martin's School of Art before going to the Royal College of Art on a scholarship.

Deighton worked evenings as a waiter to supplement his income and it is said that he once worked as a pastry cook at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Perhaps it was here that he gained his interest in cooking which prompted him to later write several cookbooks.

Working for a while as an illustrator in New York and as art director of an advertising agency in London he later moved to the Dordogne.

Len Deighton devised 50 cookstrips illustrating the basics of French cooking which were published in the "Observer". His first novel The Ipcress File was published in 1962 to popular acclaim.

The book captured the mood of the early sixties and Deighton authored a succession of spy novels before embarking on other works of fiction and a series of books on military history.

All of his books are thoroughly researched and he is renowned for the lengths he will go to for authenticity.

There has been an unusual break in his writing output since the publication of his latest work, Charity, in 1996.