Novels
Several of his novels have been adapted as films. His first four novels featured an anonymous anti-hero, named "Harry Palmer" in the films, and portrayed by Michael Caine. The first trilogy of his
Bernard Samson novel series was made into a 12-part television series by Granada Television in 1988, shown only once, and withdrawn on instructions from Mr Deighton. Quentin Tarantino has expressed interest in filming the trilogy. [2] He wrote the screenplay and was an uncredited producer
of the [[Oh! What a Lovely War|1969 film]] of the stage musical ''[[Oh, What a Lovely War!]]''. His 1970 [[World War II]] historical novel ''[[Bomber (novel)|Bomber]]'' about an [[RAF Bomber Command]] raid over [[Germany]] often is considered his masterpiece.
He reportedly began an unfinished Vietnam novel, a portion of which appeared as the story
First Base in his short story collection
Declarations of War.
Cookery books
Deighton also published a series of cookery books and wrote and drew a weekly strip cartoon-style illustrated cooking guide in London's
The Observer newspaper –
Len Deighton's Cookstrip. At least one of the strips is pinned up in Deighton's spy hero's kitchen in the 1965 film of his novel
The IPCRESS File.[3]
To exploit the success of Deighton's first four "Unnamed Hero" novels, he wrote
Len Deighton's London Dossier (1967), a guide book to Swinging Sixties London with a "secret agent" theme — contributions from other writers are described as "surveillance reports".
History books
Deighton's 1977 "
The True Story of the Battle of Britain" was said by Albert Speer (once Hitler's Minister of Armaments) to be "an excellent, most thorough examination. I read page after page with fascination". The piece was furnished with a comment by A. J. P. Taylor simply saying: "Brilliant analysis...".