British spy novelist Len Deighton dies
British writer Len Deighton, who created the sardonic working-class spy played by Michael Caine in the 1965 Cold War film The Ipcress File, “passed away peacefully on Sunday”, his literary agent said, calling him “one of the greatest spy and thriller writers of the twentieth century”. He was 97.
Deighton’s thick-bespectacled agent provided an antidote to the debonair naval officer James Bond created by Ian Fleming. The character’s rough edges also set him apart from gentleman spy George Smiley featured in books by John Le Carre.
Deighton’s spy was anonymous in his first book, The Ipcress File (1962), and its sequels Horse Under Water (1963), Funeral in Berlin (1964) and Billion-Dollar Brain (1966). But the anti-hero was baptised Harry Palmer for the hugely successful film version of the Ipcress File starring Caine, which brought Deighton to a wider audience.
Deighton, who like his spy also wore thick spectacles, lived life out of the limelight, rarely giving interviews.
Yet he sold millions of books in the English-speaking world and was translated into 20 languages over a career spanning half a century.
Originally published in Dawn, March 18th, 2026
Cover photo: AFP
