Len Deighton was born in 1929 in London. He did his national service in the RAF, went to the Royal College of Art and designed many book jackets, including the original UK edition of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. The enormous success of his first spy novel, The IPCRESS File (1962), was repeated in a remarkable sequence of books over the following decades. These varied from historical fiction (Bomber, perhaps his greatest novel) to dystopian alternative fiction (SS-GB) and a number of brilliant non-fiction books on the Second World War (Fighter, Blitzkrieg and Blood, Tears and Folly). 
 
His spy novels chart the twists and turns of Britain and the Cold War in ways which now give them a unique flavour. They preserve a world in which Europe contains many dictatorships, in which the personal can be ruined by the ideological and where the horrors of the Second World War are buried under only a very thin layer of soil. Deighton's fascination with technology, his sense of humour and his brilliant evocation of time and place make him one of the key British espionage writers, alongside John Buchan, Eric Ambler, Ian Fleming and John Le Carré.

Len Deighton

PublicationStatus

Brand

Format

AgeRange

Series

Imprint

CategoryLabel

J B Priestley

A group of travellers find themselves marooned in the Welsh countryside by torrential rains and buffeting winds. Desperate to find shelter from the storm, they flee to a crumbling mansion, where they are reluctantly taken in by the cloistered, erratic Femm family. Strange on first meeting, the secretive family’s true peculiarities only become clear as the night unfolds… 
 
A gothic treat shot through with the dejection and anxiety of a world recovering from the horrors of the First World War, J. B. Priestley’s Benighted is a razor-sharp blend of dark social satire and even darker dread. 
 
‘There are none too many stories comparable with this one’ - The New York Times

Benighted

Rosalind Ashe

Like moths to a flame, people are drawn to Dower House. To see the estate in dappled sunlight, to feel the breeze blown in from the river, is to forever be in love. Among those caught in its spell are James and Nemo Boyce, who quickly buy it, and Professor Harry Harris, who becomes captivated by both the house and its new mistress. But an uninvited guest soon corrupts their paradise, and quickly reveals the dark heart of the home... 
 
A tour-de-force of chest-tightening tension, Moths, one of the great gothic horrors of twentieth century, is an extraordinary tale of possession and sinister seduction. 
 
‘A magical novel, passionate, exciting, and beautifully written’ Iris Murdoch

Moths

Hilda Lewis

Joan Flower is long dead when she first appears to Samuel Fleming, a priest plagued by doubts about her and her daughters’ execution for witchcraft. Did he do all he could to rescue them from damnation? From beyond the grave, Joan reveals to him the spine-chilling tale of her seduction by Satan, her temptation of her own daughters to the Devil’s coven, her murderous sacrifices, and her final rejection by both Heaven and Hell – yet Samuel still strives for a way to redeem her sins. 
Over their terrifying conversations, Samuel learns the way of the witches’ sabbath and comes to the dark realisation that Joan’s soul may not be the only one in need of saving... 
 
Based on real seventeenth-century witch trials in Lincolnshire, The Witch and the Priest is a masterpiece of historical atmosphere and psychological horror. 
 
‘Strange terror fills this tale of seventeenth-century witchcraft … horrific and written with much skill.’ Daily Telegraph

The Witch and the Priest

Various Authors

Step into the terrifying world of ghostly apparitions, grotesque monsters and terrible, creeping dread – but be careful, who knows if you'll make it out alive? 
 
This collection brings together ten of the greatest literary horror stories every written, from Mary Shelley’s iconic tale of a ‘body swap’ gone wrong, to Edgar Allen Poe's terrifying account of a great family’s downfall, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s chilling description of female subjugation. A treasure trove of scares and spooks, Classic Horror: An Anthology is a timeless celebration of all that curdles the blood and goes bump in the night …

Classic Horror

An Anthology

Edith Wharton

Known for writing some of the most incisive and elegant novels of the early twentieth century, Edith Wharton was also a master practitioner of the ghost story, producing dozens of frightful tales throughout her lifetime. Combining pristine prose with strange, suffocating atmospheres and profound sense of the uncanny, this collection of her very best haunting narratives detail spectral handwriting, isolated houses in lonely landscapes, and a husband with a terrible secret… 
 
 ‘Masterly stories of horror and unease’ New Yorker

Showing results for: ‘Len Deighton’

Filters

Category

Publication Date

Format

Series

Imprint

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter