www.jamesbondresearch.co.uk
There are so many authors that can be considered to be in the 'spy genre' and it would be impossible for me to mention everyone. There are, however, a few main players that have significantly influenced the genre and made it into such a rich area of fiction.
If you click on the name of the author, you will be taken to a list of the books available for that author at Amazon.co.uk.
Greene
began writing in the 1930s and continued to do so until his death in 1991.
Greene's most famous works have been The Third Man, Our Man
in Havana, Travels with My Aunt and The End of the Affair. Not all of Greene's
novels concern espionage and are more concerned with human nature and the flaws
that people have. Greene's
1958 novel, Our Man in Havana is probably the best known of his titles because
of the uniqueness of the circumstances of the story and what happened in reality
afterwards. This novel tells the story of a vacuum cleaner salesman in Havana
who is recruited by British Intelligence to work as their 'man' in Havana.
The salesman, Wormold, however, fabricates his evidence and is horrified when the agents he has created are killed and shot at as an enemy agent breaks his code and real people are mistaken for fictitious agents. Given that the novel fabricates military installations in the hills of Cuba, events that were to become all too real in 1962, this novel is odd in that the story within acts as a precursor to history. Greene's novel has been used by le Carré to create his 1996 satire The Tailor of Panama, where a similar situation arises where a British tailor, Pendel, in Panama fabricates intelligence, which results in a limited war.
This aside, Greene is known for the depth of character that he creates and the humour that is a feature of his novels. Our Man in Havana is no different in these respects, and unlike the novels of Fleming, there is little sex, a lot of comedy and a great deal less patriotism. Unlike Fleming who consistently plays up the superiority of the British race, or rather the English, Greene is unafraid of confronting the reality that the British are not perfect and that some images of British behaviour are undesirable:
'Wormold,' a voice said, and turning he saw that it was Carter of Nucleaners, but it was also for Wormold at that moment the English midlands, English snobbery, English vulgarity, all the sense of kinship and security the word England implied to him.
(G. Greene, Our Man in Havana, London, 1958, p.169 [Vintage Version]).
Len Deighton is sometimes described as
being a blend of Fleming and le Carré, producing something in between the
sensationalism of Fleming and the darkness of le Carré. This is true to a
point, but whereas le Carré probably set about deliberately contrasting Bond
with Leamas and later George Smiley. Deighton's hero in his first four novels is
without a name. We assume that he does have a name but the reader is never told
it. In many ways this makes Deighton's hero the complete antithesis of Bond:
the hero lives in a small flat south of the Thames, wears horn-rimmed glasses,
is not overly successful with women, and uses no name in the novels to brand
him. One of the most important aspects of the Bond franchise is the very name
"Bond, James Bond".
Deighton's
novels are supremely witty and throughout are highly entertaining as well as
being well-researched and founded in reality. Three of Deighton's first four
novels were adapted to film, with The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin and
Billion-Dollar Brain starring Michael Caine as Harry Palmer. Palmer is the name
given to the previously unnamed hero and the original novels are sometimes
referred to as the Harry Palmer novels.
The film adaptations were produced by
Harry Saltzman and as a result many of the complexities and intricacies of the
Deighton novels were removed and the plot simplified.
The first of these films, The Ipcress File (1965) is a variation on the Bond formula, but sufficiently different to be far enough removed to be considered separate. The following film, Funeral in Berlin, is very disjointed and far less dramatic than the novel. By the arrival of the third film, Billion-Dollar Brain, the 'Palmer franchise' resembled the Bond franchise as the character found easy sex, the opening credits were designed by Maurice Binder and the sets began to resemble Ken Adam's.
Deighton is also well-known for his Bernard Samson novels, the first three of which were made into a thirteen-episode television drama in 1988. This trilogy of trilogies is highly engaging and although the notes at the start of each novel suggest that they can all be read independently they really should be read in order.
For my money, the Samson books are even better than the 'Palmer' ones. There is real tension in the Samson books and over the 9 books, you go on a real journey. Perhaps the duration of that journey and its toughness is why Deighton doesn't write anymore, which is a great pity.
Many of le Carré's books can be
seen as a reaction against the sensationalism of Fleming and the Bond films
which began appearing shortly before le Carré produced probably his best book -
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.
All of le Carré's characters are far removed from those of Fleming and sensationalist characters in general. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold is a story of an anti-hero and of a service that is bleak, dirty and without morals at all. The novel was adapted to film in 1965, with Richard Burton in the role of Leamas. It has often been argued that le Carré wrote The Spy Who Came in From the Cold for two reasons - first, because he was horrified by the erection of the Berlin wall, second, because he despised the novels of Fleming and the character of Bond. Although le Carré denies the latter, few believe him and Leamas is often considered the 'perfect' antithesis of Bond. There's a sharp difference between the world of Bond where loyalty to the service and to M are key, and where Leamas finds himself in a service where nothing is what it seems and life is easily expended without conscience:
‘They used us’ Leamas replied pitilessly. ‘They cheated us both because it was necessary. It was necessary. It was the only way. Fiedler was bloody nearly home already, don’t you see? Mundt would have been caught; can’t you understand that?’
‘How can you turn the world upside down?’ Liz shouted suddenly. ‘Fiedler was kind and decent; he was only doing his job, and now you’ve killed him. Mundt is a spy and a traitor and you protect him. Mundt is a Nazi, do you know that? He hates Jews…what side are you on? How can you…?’
'There’s only one law in this game,’ Leamas retorted. ‘Mundt is their [MI6’s] man; he gives them what they need. That’s easy enough to understand, isn’t it? Leninism – the expediency of temporary alliances. What do you think spies are: priests, saints and martyrs? They’re a squalid procession of vain fools, traitors too, yes; pansies, sadists and drunkards, people who play cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten lives. Do you think they sit like monks in London balancing the rights and wrongs? I’d have killed Mundt if I could, I hate his guts; but not now. It so happens that they need him.’
(J. le Carré, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, London, 1963, p.220 [Sceptre Version] )
Le Carré's most noted novels, aside from The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, have been the Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy trilogy which also includes, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People, which were motivated by the treachery of the Cambridge Spy Ring. The so-called 'ring of five' operated inside the British security services during the 1965s and 1960s, until successive members were exposed as Soviet Agents. Although le Carré's novels have been critically acclaimed and are certainly important in the genre, they are sometimes slower going and are more thought provoking than you may find elsewhere. The Honourable Schoolboy is quite an odd novel in that it does not seem to fit so well with the ones that come before and after it. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy and Simley's People are truly excellent, but like so many others need to be read in order.
Sadly, Ambler fell out of fashion towards
the end of the 1970s and has only now been partly returned to the bookshelves.
Ambler's works are direct and very cleverly put together, but are split in style
by the Second World War. Ambler's pre-war novels are straighter and, like
novels of that period, are far more concerned with personalities and social
behaviour. Essentially, Ambler's earlier novels resemble detective stories.
The novels Ambler wrote in the years after the war, however, are far more
satirical and cutting. Ambler's
work is truly enjoyable and worth exploring.
The Mask of Dimitrios (A Coffin for Dimitrios in the US) is one of his best, and most famous. Ambler has a preoccupation with the importance of nationality in his novels, something which Deighton also dwells on at length. If an analysis of nationality in the spy novel is required, then Ambler is a great place to start.
Clive Cussler
Cussler
is not especially well known as an espionage writer, and on the face of it he is
not an espionage writer as such. However, a reading of any of Cussler's novels
reveals the strong influence of Ian Fleming and the Bond films on his style of
writing. Cussler, a former US Air Force officer, has written a huge number
of novels featuring the hero Dirk Pitt. Pitt is described in much the same
way as Bond and each novel opens with an action scene that at first appears to
be unrelated to the rest of the plot. Only two of Cussler's novels has been
adapted to film. The 1980 adaptation of Raise the Titanic, a Cold War thriller
that reads like a precursor to the Strategic Defence Initiative (Star Wars)
military programme of the 1980s, cost $34 million and failed. The film's
portrayal of Dirk Pitt is way off beam and does not do the character justice.
Cussler's novels usually feature a threat to the United States or to the world at large, which emanates from some maritime incident. One such example is his 1991 novel Dragon, where a nuclear bomb intended for Japan at the end of the Second World War is rediscovered. Along with Fat Man and Little Boy, Mother's Breath should have been dropped on a major Japanese city, but the bomber carrying the bomb crashed and its existence covered up. A new fanatical Japanese cult now threatens the US and the use of a nuclear bomb against the US becomes a real threat.
