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From Bond to Argylle: how spy fiction has evolved

Journey into Fear

'The new crime and espionage series from Penguin Classics makes for a mouth-watering prospect' Daily Telegraph 
1940. An unassuming English engineer has travelled to Turkey on business. And somebody wants him dead. 
It all began when Graham was taken to a nightclub in Istanbul and noticed a man in a crumpled suit, watching him. Then he narrowly missed being killed by gunfire on returning to his hotel room. Now, terrified, he has been helped to escape in secret on a passenger steamer home. But although Graham may try to run, he cannot hide from his pursuers forever, and soon he is caught up in a nightmare beyond his control.

Eric Ambler (1909-98) was born in London to parents who were part-time entertainers. Between 1937 and 1940, he published his great anti-fascist spy thrillers, from Uncommon Danger to Journey into Fear. In 1940, he joined the Royal Artillery and was later transferred to the army film unit. After the war he worked as a screenwriter in England and Hollywood, and wrote novels including Passage of Arms, The Light of Day and A Kind of Anger.

It is 1940 and Mr Graham, a quietly-spoken engineer and arms expert, has just finished high-level talks with the Turkish government. And now somebody wants him dead. The previous night three shots were fired at him as he stepped into his hotel room, so, terrified, he escapes in secret on a passenger steamer from Istanbul. As he journeys home - alongside, among others, an entrancing French dancer, an unkempt trader, a mysterious German doctor and a small, brutal man in a crumpled suit - he enters a nightmarish world where friend and foe are indistinguishable. Graham can try to run, but he may not be able to hide for much longer...

A Kind of Anger

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'A thriller of the highest quality - ironic, witty, literate, ingenious, understated and unflaggingly suspenseful' The New York Times Book Review 
 
The last time anyone saw Lucia Bernardi, she was driving at top speed away from a Swiss villa - leaving the body of her murdered Iraqi lover behind. Now she has vanished, along with a potentially explosive set of papers, and disgraced journalist Piet Maas has been sent to follow her trail to the South of France. But finding her is just the start of his problems. Soon, amid a cast of con men, secret agents and revolutionaries, he must decide whether to land the scoop of his lifetime - or follow Lucia into ever more dangerous waters.

Unquestionably our best thriller writer ever

A thriller of the highest quality - ironic, witty, literate, ingenious, understated and unflaggingly suspenseful

Eric Ambler (1909-98) was born in London to parents who were part-time entertainers. He studied engineering but left college without taking a degree and became a copywriter in the advertising industry. Between 1937 and 1940, he published his great anti-fascist spy thrillers: Uncommon Danger, Epitaph for a Spy, Cause for Alarm, The Mask of Dimitrios, and Journey into Fear. In 1940, he joined the Royal Artillery and was later transferred to the army film unit. After the war he worked as a screenwriter in England and Hollywood and married his second wife, a leading Hollywood producer. Ambler's post-war novels include Passage of Arms, The Light of Day and A Kind of Anger, and his profound influence on the genre has been acknowledged by writers including Graham Greene, Ian Fleming and John le Carré.

Lucia Bernardi was last seen driving a car at top speed away from a villa - and the body of her murdered Iraqi lover - in Switzerland. Now disgraced journalist Piet Maas has been sent to find her in the south of France. When he does, he must decide whether to get the scoop of his lifetime - or to plunge into ever more dangerous waters with her. 
 
Featuring a cast of fraudsters, hitmen and Kurdish revolutionaries, A Kind of Anger is a classic thriller from the father of the genre.

Passage of Arms

'The man who lit the way for us all' Len Deighton 
 
An Indian clerk, Girija Krishnan, sees the opportunity of his lifetime when he stumbles on an abandoned cache of arms hidden in the Malayan jungle. If he can sell the weapons, he will be able to achieve his lifelong dream of owning a bus company - although the penalty for gun-running is death. Soon his decision becomes the catalyst for a chain of events involving an entrepreneurial Chinese family, a corrupt Colonel and, finally, a naïve couple of American tourists who find themselves horribly out of their depth.

A taut and extraordinary piece of writing

Girija Krishnan, an Indian clerk, sees the opportunity of his lifetime when he stumbles on a lost cache of arms hidden in the Malayan jungle. If he can find a buyer for the weapons, he will be able to achieve his life-long dream of creating his own bus company. But the risks are as high as the rewards, as the arms draw ever more people into their dangerous orbit: an entrepreneurial trio of Chinese brothers, a sleazy British former soldier, and a naive American couple who find themselves horribly out of their depth. 
 
Following the arms as they travel from the jungle to Singapore to Indonesia, Ambler's classic thriller is a tour de force of psychological and political insight, and winner of the 1959 Gold Dagger award.

The Light of Day

'He took the spy thriller out of the gentility of the drawing room and into the back streets of Istanbul, where it all really happened' Frederick Forsyth 
 
 
Small-time hustler Arthur Abdel Simpson ekes out a living in Athens by robbing gullible tourists. But when an attempted theft backfires, he finds himself out-smarted and blackmailed into driving a highly suspicious car across the border to Istanbul. Then the Turkish secret police get involved, and Simpson becomes embroiled in something far deeper, and more dangerous, than he could imagine. Featuring a heart-stopping jewel heist, this compulsive, morally complex thriller became the basis for the classic film Topkapi.

Arthur Abdel Simpson is a failed journalist and soon-to-be failed thief, embittered by memories of his unhappy childhood in England and eking out a living in Athens. When he spots a newly arrived tourist at the airport, he offers his services as a private driver and sees an easy chance to make some money by illicit means. But the out-matched Simpson soon finds himself embroiled in blackmail and driving a highly suspicious car to Istanbul. When he is stopped by the Turkish police, it seems his luck can't get any worse - but this is just the beginning . . . 
 
Adapted as the classic film Topkapi and featuring one of literature's greatest heist scenes, Light of Day is a heart-stopping and highly enjoyable novel from the father of the spy thriller.

Epitaph for a Spy

If you want to experience the feel of the Continent in the 1930s, you will find few better guides

A sly variation on the traditional English country-house murder mystery

An uncommonly good story of international intrigue

Josef Vadassy, a Hungarian refugee and language teacher living in France, is enjoying his first break for years in a small hotel on the Riviera. But when he takes his holiday photographs to be developed at a local chemists, he suddenly finds himself mistaken for a Gestapo agent and a charge of espionage is levelled at him. To prove himself innocent to the French police, he must discover which one of his fellow guests at his pension is the real spy. As he desperately tries to uncover the true culprit's identity, Vadassy must risk his job, his safety and everything he holds dear.

Cause for Alarm

Nicky Marlow needs a job. He's engaged to be married and the employment market in Britain in 1937 is pretty slim. So when his fiancée points out the position with an English armaments manufacturer in Italy, he jumps at the chance. Soon after he arrives, however, he learns the sinister truth about his predecessor's departure and finds himself courted by two agents with dangerously different agendas. In the process, Marlow realizes that it's not so simple just to do the job he's paid for - not in fascist Italy, on the eve of a world war.

Uncommon Danger

Kenton's career as a journalist depends on his facility with languages, his knowledge of European politics and his quick judgement. Where his judgement sometimes fails him, however, is in his personal life. When he travels to Nuremberg to investigate a story about a top-level meeting of Nazi officials, he inadvertently finds himself on a train bound for Austria after a bad night of gambling. Stranded with no money, Kenton jumps at the chance to earn a fee helping a refugee smuggle securities across the border. Yet he soon discovers that the documents he holds have far more than cash value - and that they could cost him his life ...

Eric Ambler

Mark Mazower

Not Le Carré, not Deighton, not Ludlum have surpassed the intelligence, authenticity or engrossing storytelling that established The Mask of Dimitrios as the best of its kind.

A gripping thriller ... still fresh as new.

A startling, elegant masterpiece of espionage fiction.

English crime novelist Charles Latimer is travelling in Istanbul when he makes the acquaintance of Turkish police inspector Colonel Haki. It is from him that he first hears of the mysterious Dimitrios - an infamous master criminal, long wanted by the law, whose body has just been fished out of the Bosphorus. Fascinated by the story, Latimer decides to retrace Dimitrios' steps across Europe to gather material for a new book. But, as he gradually discovers more about his subject's shadowy history, fascination tips over into obsession. And, in entering Dimitrios' criminal underworld, Latimer realizes that his own life may be on the line.

Eric Ambler

Praise for The Mask of Dimitrios

Not Le Carré, not Deighton, not Ludlum have surpassed the intelligence, authenticity or engrossing storytelling that established The Mask of Dimitrios as the best of its kind.

A gripping thriller ... still fresh as new.

A startling, elegant masterpiece of espionage fiction.

Not Le Carré, not Deighton, not Ludlum have surpassed the intelligence, authenticity or engrossing storytelling that established The Mask of Dimitrios as the best of its kind.

A gripping thriller ... still fresh as new.

A startling, elegant masterpiece of espionage fiction.

Not Le Carré, not Deighton, not Ludlum have surpassed the intelligence, authenticity or engrossing storytelling that established The Mask of Dimitrios as the best of its kind.

A gripping thriller ... still fresh as new.

A startling, elegant masterpiece of espionage fiction.

Books by Eric Ambler

Articles featuring Eric Ambler

From Bond to Argylle: how spy fiction has evolved

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