Len Deighton - Other Fiction

Other Fiction by Len Deighton

All prices are approximate and assume that books are First Editions in at least Very Good Condition with dust jacket where appropriate. Illustrations are not necessarily of First Editions.

Only When I Larf

Only When I Larf Published by Michael Joseph, London, 1968. Published simultaneously in paperback by Sphere, 1968.

A privately printed edition preceded the first public edition. Printed privately for the author for copyright reasons, it was limited to 150 copies and was produced in a ringbound typescript in card wrappers with an enlarged five pound note design across the covers.

£100 hardback £30 paperback

Len Deighton on the set of Only When I Larf with Alexandra Stewart, David Hemmings and Richard Attenborough:

First Line(s): We'd been eight and a half minutes earlier on the dress rehearsal.

Bomber

Deighton claims to have written half a million words in research notes alone in preparation for this novel

£25

First Line(s): It was a bomber's sky: dry air, wind enough to clear the smoke, cloud broken enough to recognise a few stars.

Declarations of War

£45

A book of short stories written while Deighton and his wife spent a year living in hotels. Deighton says he is particularly satisfied with this book.

First Line(s): (From the first short story 'It Must Have Been Two other Fellows'.): James Sidney Pelling was fifty-nine years old. Ever since his cadet days he had been obsessed with motor-cars.

Close-Up

Close-Up, Published by Jonathan Cape, London, 1972

One of Deighton's favourites. He says he wrote it to get his own back on the film industry following his experiences as a producer.

£40

First Line(s): The heavy blue notepaper crackled as the man signed his name. The signature was an actor's: a dashing autograph, bigger by far than any of the text.

SS-GB

SS-GB, Published by Jonathan Cape, London 1978

£40

First Line(s): 'Himmler's got the King locked up in the Tower of London', said Harry Woods.

XPD

XPD, Published by Hutchinson, London 1981

£25

First Line(s): In May 1979, only days after Britain's new Conservative government came to power, the yellow box that contains the daily report from MI6 to the Prime Minister was delivered to her by a deputy secretary in the Cabinet Office. He was the PM's liaison with the intelligence services.

Goodbye Mickey Mouse

£20

Picture of Len Deighton from dustjacket of Goodbye Mickey Mouse:

First Line(s): Colonel Alexander J. Bohnen's large office overlooked Grosvenor Square.

Winter

£17

First Line(s): Everyone saw the imperious man standing under the lamppost in Vienna's Ringstrasse, and yet no one looked directly at him.

Mamista

£15

First Line(s): The smell of the rain forest came on the offshore breeze, long before they were in sight of land. It was a sour smell of putrefaction.

City of Gold

First Line(s): 'I like escorting prisoners,' said Captain Albert Cutler settling back and stretching out his legs along the empty seats.

Violent Ward

First Line(s): "There's a woman sitting on my window ledge," I said quietly and calmly into the phone.