'A most impressive book in which the tension, more like a chronic ache than a sharp stab of pain, never lets go.' Evening Standard 'A ferociously cool fable, even better than The Spy Who Came In From the Cold.' New York Times 'Brilliant, bright and wicked.' Vogue 'A master of fictional espionage.' Daily Mail 'The poet of the spy story.' Sunday Times 'Deighton is so far in the front of other writers in the field that they are not even in sight' Sunday Times 'Nobody now seriously doubts that Deighton is the most credible of all the spysmiths' The Scotsman

Born in London, Len Deighton served in the RAF before graduating from the Royal College of Art (which recently elected him a Senior Fellow). While in New York City working as a magazine illustrator he began writing his first novel, The Ipcress File, which was published in 1962. He is now the author of more than thirty books of fiction and non-fiction. At present living in Europe, he has, over the years, lived with his family in ten different countries from Austria to Portugal.