In common with several of his other early novels, the chapter headings have a "feature". In Spy Story these take the form of excerpts from the fictional Studies Centre's rules.
Protagonist
As in the earlier "Unnamed hero" novels, we never learn the protagonist's name, only that he is living under an alias "Pat Armstrong". Armstrong works for the Studies Centre in London, where wargames are played with computer assistance, using the latest intelligence data on Soviet electronic warfare capabilities. We learn in passing that Armstrong is in his late 30s and that he formerly worked for an unnamed intelligence organisation, which may well be the WOOC(P) of the earlier books – Dawlish, the head of WOOC(P) in the earlier novels, appears as a character, where it is revealed that he was Armstrong's superior.[1] An additional character from earlier novels is Soviet KGB Colonel Oleg Stok.
Plot
The story opens with Armstrong and his colleague Ferdy Foxwell returning from a six-week mission aboard a nuclear submarine, gathering data on Soviet communications and electronic warfare techniques in the Arctic Ocean. He and Foxwell visit "The Bonnet", a rural Scottish public house. On returning to London, Armstrong's car breaks down on his way home and he decides to use the phone in his old flat, for which he still has the key. He is surprised and disturbed to discover that the flat has been refurnished, including photographs which he owns but with someone else replacing him in the images, wearing identical clothes. He discovers a door hidden in the back of the wardrobe leading into the adjoining flat, which has been fitted out as some kind of sick bay. When he leaves the flat thinking that a taxi he ordered has arrived, he is confronted by Special Branch officers who have a former member of the Studies Centre verify who he is before releasing him.
While they were away, the Studies Centre acquired a new boss, the abrasive American, Charles Schlegel, a former Marine Corps Colonel. Foxwell and Schlegel do not get on at all well and even less so when Schlegel makes Armstrong his Personal Assistant. Shortly after his return, Armstrong is about to leave his flat when it is ransacked by KGB Colonel Oleg Stok and two assistants, who even blow open a safe left by the previous occupant. They offer no explanation for this, leaving Armstrong yet more puzzled. At a party at Ferdy Foxwell's palatial London house, Armstrong learns that Foxwell is close to MP Ben Toliver and has even been passing him classified information. Also at the party is Dawlish, the head of the intelligence organisation WOOC(P) of earlier books. We learn that Armstrong worked for Dawlish before deciding to quit intelligence work. Dawlish tries to recruit him but Armstrong turns him down.
Toliver has a suspicious car accident returning home from Foxwell's party. Armstrong traces the woman who was reported to be with him to a small French restaurant, where he discovers photos of a Soviet Rear-Admiral and a Soviet Rear-Admiral's uniform being made. He returns to the restaurant later to discover it deserted. Breaking in, he discovers all traces of what he had earlier seen have been removed, along with all paperwork. Armstrong uses the Studies Centre library to find the name of the Soviet Rear-Admiral: Remoziva, whose equally high-achieving sister is leading a Soviet delegation negotiating the re-unification of East and West Germany.
Leaving the restaurant, he is met by a high-ranking police officer who escorts him to Battersea, from where a helicopter takes him to Heathrow Airport, from whence he is flown north in a small single-engine aircraft. It takes him to a remote location in the West of Scotland, where he finds Toliver and his co-conspirators. It appears that they have been running their own unauthorised intelligence operation to arrange the defection of Admiral Remoziva, who will die within a year if he does not receive treatment for a kidney condition. The plan is to meet the Admiral on the Arctic ice and leave a corpse in his place. They had planned to keep him at Armstrong's former flat, and use the adjoining medical bay to treat him. Armstrong receives a message from an unidentified member of the clique advising him to leave, which he does. After a nightmare journey through a snow storm, he reaches a road, where he finds Dawlish and Schlegel waiting. They tell him that the defection is still on, though using a USN submarine instead of a British one.
Out on the Arctic ice, they rendezvous with Remoziva's helicopter but it turns out to contain Colonel Stok. After a brief struggle the helicopter takes off with one of Stok's men holding on to Foxwell. Armstrong grabs Foxwell's legs and is also hauled aloft. He fires at the man holding Foxwell and they both fall to the ice. He manages to lift Foxwell and staggers off to where their submarine has surfaced but by the time he reaches it Foxwell is dead. At the end of the book it is revealed that the scheme was to discredit Remoziva and by association, his siblings; his sister is forced to step down from the German Re-unification negotiations, causing the talks to collapse.
The Studies Centre
Len Deighton's fascination with military history and computers are combined in Ferdy Foxwell's Studies Centre. The Centre possesses a mainframe computer, which is used in contract to the Ministry of Defence and its officers for studying likely military scenarios for the Cold War becoming a Hot War. Ferdy is an expert games player, and usually defeats the officers sent to play against him. A noteworthy win involves simulating the ability of Soviet amphibians to land on ice on the Bering Strait in winter, which extends their range and allows them to act as a deterrent to warships, which US Navy officers did not expect. Ferdy and his programmers are also somewhat playful, inserting whimsical error codes into the computer's software (which is programmed in FORTRAN).[2] An example given is "I'm only a bloody machine but I know how to print a label once only" for a program halt.[3]
The Studies Centre does not only run military strategy simulations; it also produces simulations of historical battles, for the education of military professionals. One simulation discussed is a re-run of the Battle of Britain exploring what might have happened if the Germans had fitted drop tanks to LuftwaffeBf 109 E-4 fighters. "During the battle the Germans had long-range drop tanks for the single-seat fighters, but did not use them. Once you programme double fuel loads for the fighters, there are many permutations for the bombing attacks."[4]
Ferdy's interest in producing defeats and his success in historical and real situations produces much suspicion from his colleagues and from the Ministry, after only a few years. Patrick Armstrong and the Colonel have been called in by the Minister to investigate possible breaches in security, as Ferdy's passionate activity could be the work of the KGB to break military morale, as well as learning tactical secrets useful in a possible war with the Soviets.
Reception
The book was a best-seller in Great Britain, reaching number 2 on The Bookseller best-seller list.[5] The Jonathan Cape hardcover sold 40,000 copies.[6]
Critics generally praised the book, though several complained about the wafer-thin characterisations and the convoluted plot.
The Times Literary Supplement deemed it "a vintage Len Deighton thriller" but complained that Deighton had made "no real advance on his books of ten years ago. Mr. Deighton has, after all, written himself into the position of being judged by rather high standards." The TLS critic praised Deighton's "impeccable handling of the widely different locations", but complained that "the story [and] the characters are empty (though not by the standards of the genre)." Despite this, the TLS critic believed "there is an overall impression of richness. We have been to these, or similar, locations before on spying trips: an isolated castle in Scotland, a nuclear submarine under the northern ice-pack, a party of brittle richesse in Camden. The action and the high life are familiar enough, but the skill with which each is drawn and integrated is beguiling. Too laconic for an old-fashioned cliffhanger, Mr Deighton yet produces a sort of dispassionate cerebral excitement which, like the polar ice itself, is nine-tenths submerged and all the more menacing for that."[7]
Roderick MacLeish, in The Washington Post Book World remarked that Deighton is fun, and unlike John le Carré, Deighton recognises the amoral darkness of intelligence, politics and the spiritual rot that infects anyone who gets involved "is relegated to the status of cushioning for good, exciting stories." MacLeish says Spy Story is almost as much fun as "the superb yarn" Funeral in Berlin. MacLeish praised Deighton's sense of place: "the atmospherics ring forever true. Deighton seems to know the places he writes about—the bone-buckling cold and interminable rain of the Highlands will be familiar to anyone who has ever tramped across those wastes of appalling beauty. The hushed, lifeless world of ice, emptiness and stars that look as if they would break from the sky while submarines, with the power to incinerate the world, play tag miles below, is redolent of the desolation which, said Tacitus, the conquerors of his time called peace." MacLeish said that the polar ice-cap climax is "one of the most hair-raising passages ever written about sea warfare." However, writing about the protagonist Patrick Armstrong, MacLeish writes, "He needs a bath and loses his mistress in the end because of the things he's done in the beginning and the middle. Deighton is better at plots and settings than he is at people. But the plots are marvelous and the settings alone are worth the price of admission."[8]
Gene Lyons, writing in The New York Times Book Review noted that Deighton's success as a writer of spy thrillers "has always rested on his recognition of the humorous possibilities of the form." Lyons calls the book a "superior entertainment" and remarks that "Deighton seeks a literate audience" but that protagonist Patrick Armstrong "display[s] only the vestigial personal memory needed to flesh him out, so that he may neither learn significantly from previous adventures, nor (God forbid) intellectualize overmuch."[9]
However Pearl K. Bell writing in The New Leader called the book "an impenetrable lemon". "The artful fuzziness so completely overwhelmed the plot that the book was unreadable, all murk and no menace." Bell said that "evasive indirection has been Deighton's trademark since his first spy novel, The IPCRESS File, appeared in 1963. At the time, his obsessive reliance on the blurred and intangible, on loaded pauses and mysteriously disjointed dialogue, did convey the shadowy meanness of the spy's world, with its elusive loyalties, camouflaged identities and weary brutality. But Deighton's later efforts have bloated these cryptic and inscrutable mannerisms into a dense fog of unknowing."[10]
The IPCRESS File is Len Deighton's first spy novel, published in 1962. The story involves Cold War brainwashing, includes scenes in Lebanon and on an atoll for a United States atomic weapon test, as well as information about Joe One, the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb. The story was made into a film in 1965 produced by Harry Saltzman, directed by Sidney J. Furie and starring Michael Caine; and a 2022 TV series, starring Joe Cole, Lucy Boynton and Tom Hollander.
Leonard Cyril Deighton is a British author. His publications have included cookery books and works on history, but he is best known for his spy novels.
Harry Palmer is the name given to the anti-hero protagonist of several films based on spy novels written by Len Deighton, in which the main character is an unnamed intelligence officer. For convenience, the novels are also often referred to as the "Harry Palmer" novels.
Funeral in Berlin is a 1964 spy novel by Len Deighton set between Saturday 5 October and Sunday 10 November 1963. It was the third of Deighton's novels about an unnamed British agent. It was preceded by The IPCRESS File (1962) and Horse Under Water (1963), and followed by Billion-Dollar Brain (1966).
Billion-Dollar Brain is a 1966 Cold War spy novel by Len Deighton. It was the fourth to feature an unnamed secret agent working for the British WOOC(P) intelligence agency. It follows The IPCRESS File (1962), Horse Under Water (1963), and Funeral in Berlin (1964). As in most of Deighton's novels, the plot of Billion Dollar Brain (1967) is intricate, with many dead ends.
Ice Station Zebra is a 1963 thriller novel written by Scottish author Alistair MacLean. It marked a return to MacLean's classic Arctic setting. After completing this novel, whose plot line parallels real-life events during the Cold War, MacLean retired from writing for three years. In 1968 it was loosely adapted into a film of the same name.
Horse Under Water (1963) is the second of several Len Deighton spy novels featuring an unnamed British intelligence officer. It was preceded by The IPCRESS File and followed by Funeral in Berlin.
Billion Dollar Brain is a 1967 British espionage film directed by Ken Russell and based on the 1966 novel Billion-Dollar Brain by Len Deighton. The film features Michael Caine as secret agent Harry Palmer, the anti-hero protagonist. The "brain" of the title is a sophisticated computer with which an anti-communist organisation controls its worldwide anti-Soviet spy network.
Bernard Samson is a fictional character created by Len Deighton. Samson is a middle-aged and somewhat jaded intelligence officer working for the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) – usually referred to as "the Department" in the novels. He is a central character in three trilogies written by Deighton, set in the years 1983–1988, with a large gap between 1984 and 1987. The first trilogy comprises the books Berlin Game, Mexico Set and London Match, the second comprises Spy Hook, Spy Line and Spy Sinker, and the third and final trilogy comprises Faith, Hope and Charity. The plot of the entire trilogy of trilogies revolves around Samson's wife Fiona, also an intelligence officer, and which side she is really working for, after she has defected to the East Germans in the first trilogy, leaving a distraught Bernard with their two children. Her defection also causes some of his superiors to question his loyalty.
Berlin Game is a 1983 spy novel by Len Deighton. It is the first novel in the first of three trilogies about Bernard Samson, a middle-aged intelligence officer working for the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Berlin Game is part of the Game, Set and Match trilogy, being succeeded by Mexico Set and London Match, and followed by the Hook, Line and Sinker trilogy and the final Faith, Hope and Charity trilogy. Deighton's novel Winter (1987) is a prequel to the nine novels, covering the years 1900-1945 and providing the backstory to some of the characters.
Mexico Set is a 1984 spy novel by Len Deighton. It is the second novel in the first of three trilogies about Bernard Samson, a middle-aged and somewhat jaded intelligence officer working for the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Mexico Set is part of the Game, Set and Match trilogy, being preceded by Berlin Game and followed by London Match. This trilogy is followed by the Hook, Line and Sinker trilogy and the final Faith, Hope and Charity trilogy. Deighton's novel Winter (1987) is a prequel to the nine novels, covering the years 1900-1945 and providing the backstory to some of the characters.
Spy Hook is a 1988 spy novel by Len Deighton. It is the first novel in the second of three trilogies about Bernard Samson, a middle-aged and somewhat jaded intelligence officer working for the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Spy Hook is part of the Hook, Line and Sinker trilogy, being succeeded by Spy Line and Spy Sinker. This trilogy is preceded by the Game, Set and Match trilogy and followed by the final Faith, Hope and Charity trilogy. Deighton's novel Winter (1987) is a prequel to the nine novels, covering the years 1900-1945 and providing the backstory to some of the characters.
Spy Sinker is a 1990 spy novel by Len Deighton. It is the final novel in the second of three trilogies about Bernard Samson, a middle-aged and somewhat jaded intelligence officer working for the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Spy Sinker is part of the Hook, Line and Sinker trilogy, being preceded by Spy Hook and Spy Line. This trilogy is preceded by the Game, Set and Match trilogy and followed by the final Faith, Hope and Charity trilogy. Deighton's novel Winter (1987) is a prequel to the nine novels, covering the years 1900-1945 and providing the backstory to some of the characters.
Winter is a 1987 novel by Len Deighton, which follows the lives of a German family from 1899 to 1945. At the same time the novel provides an historical background to several of the characters in Deighton's nine novels about the British intelligence agent Bernard Samson, who grew up in the ruins of Berlin after the Second World War.
Funeral in Berlin is a 1966 British spy film directed by Guy Hamilton and based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Len Deighton. It is the second of three 1960s films starring Michael Caine as the character Harry Palmer that followed the characters from the initial film, The Ipcress File (1965). The third film was Billion Dollar Brain (1967).
Patrick Armstrong may refer to:
Spy Story is a 1976 British espionage film directed by Lindsay Shonteff and starring Michael Petrovitch, Philip Latham and Don Fellows. It is based on the 1974 novel of the same name by Len Deighton.
Faith is a 1994 spy novel by Len Deighton. It is the first novel in the final trilogy of three about Bernard Samson, a middle-aged and somewhat jaded intelligence officer working for the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Faith is part of the Faith, Hope and Charity trilogy, being followed by Hope and Charity. This trilogy is preceded by the Game, Set and Match and the Hook, Line and Sinker trilogies. Deighton's novel Winter (1987) is a prequel to the nine novels, covering the years 1900-1945 and providing the backstory to some of the characters.
Len Deighton is an English author known for his novels, works of military history, screenplays and cookery writing. He had a varied career, including as a pastry cook, waiter, co-editor of a magazine, teacher and air steward before writing his first novel in 1962: The IPCRESS File. He continued to produce what his biographer John Reilly considers "stylish, witty, well-crafted novels" in spy fiction, including three trilogies and a prequel featuring Bernard Samson.
The Ipcress File is a British cold war spy thriller television series loosely based on the 1962 novel The IPCRESS File by Len Deighton. Written by John Hodge and directed by James Watkins, it stars Joe Cole, Lucy Boynton and Tom Hollander. It was first broadcast at 9pm from Sunday 6 March to 10 April 2022 on ITV. The entire series was available for streaming, with commercials, on ITV Hub after episode 1 was broadcast. Within a week the full series was also available, commercial-free, on BritBox in the UK.
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