I hadn’t previously read any of Deighton’s books, but the Harry Palmer films used to come up a lot on TV when I was a teenager in the 1970s.

Brock's objected to this, and sued for libel.

The writing is sharp and witty and Deighton's style is quite unique. Len Deighton's spy novels are a rare treat for anyone who loves the genre. Good read. Just a heads up for those who intend to read the book based on seeing the movie of the same name: two of the high level plot premises are different. I hadn’t previously read any of Deighton’s books, but the Harry Palmer films used to come up a lot on TV when I was a teenager in the 1970s. Hallam's tight!" The fake documentation for Semitsa needs to be precisely specified. King ostentatiously throws the Deighton book into the fireplace.)

An early, partially-forgotten work by a young Len Deighton, clearly setting the stage for the later works that were the foundation for his fame. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 28, 2020. Without giving too much away these differences may sound petty, but as you pull the thread on the 2 plots they do go in different directions. retains the classic spy thriller sense of underlying distrust and betrayal. His father was a chauffeur and mechanic, and his mother was a part-time cook. Perhaps time has dulled some of the excitement associated when this book first appeared in 1962, but it still holds up reasonably well. The protagonist has lots of one liners (a sort of spy Philip Marlowe), but he is never as witty as he or Deighton think he is. To put it bluntly, I found this novel ponderous, terribly paced and worst of all, without a fragment of insight into either, a) the "secret" world of espionage, and/or, human nature. The U.K. publication of Funeral in Berlin brought on a lawsuit: At the novel's climax, the protagonist and Hallam meet at a fireworks party where they discuss the hazards of fireworks. Also contains two of the funniest jokes about communism ever told. Colonel Stok is a hoot.

Funeral in Berlin is a spy novel set in the '60s. And, as we might expect from a slice of 1960s macho popular fiction, there are a lot of Playboy attitudes. We’d love your help. After leaving school, Deighton worked as a railway clerk before performing his National Service, which he spent as a photographer for the Royal Air Force's Special Investigation Branch. Don't expect glamorous 'James Bond' type spy adventure here.

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I will now read the next in the series. Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2014. Find all the books, read about the author, and more.

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Full of twists and turns and double agents.

A wide ranging spy novel, which is quite the opposite of the film version. Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2020, Sorry but this did not live up to my expectation.

This is one of the classic Len Deighton stories, in the same league as The Ipcress File, Horse Under Water, Billion Dollar Brain, and An Expensive Place to Die. Be the first to ask a question about Funeral in Berlin. A dense plot, but not so overwhelming that you'll get lost in it. It's a clever read that will keep you thinking throughout. Thus it is no surprise to see so much of the plot take place in seedy run-down garages, hotels, rented rooms, and the like.

After discharge from the RAF, he studied at St Martin's School of Art in London in 1949, and in 1952 won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1955.

Like the two previous titles by Len Deighton this book is quite confusing and it is not too easy to follow what is happening.

The plot is sinuous, and much is left to implication - many of the key plot points aren't explicit, and personally I like this, with the onus on the reader to join the dots.

Though the original publication date of this book is listed as 1964, and the Michael Caine film of "The Ipcress File" is listed as 1965 release, the unnamed protagonist in this work is certainly recognizable as Caine's 'Harry Palmer', right down to the eyeglasses.

A superior espionage thriller. Welcome back. Packed full of convincing detail and dry wit. Not a poor book, with a story the reader can follow and attempt to piece together - at least partly.

One chapter has a brilliantly written, bitter but ultimately profound perspective on the Holocaust and the folly of the human race by a Jewish victim, who's being interviewed by the protagonist, and it ties in perfectly and artfully with one of the main themes in the main story, perhaps the biggest theme. In this novel, Deighton becomes the British descendent of Raymond Chandler's hero in THE BIG SLEEP, THE LONG GOODBYE and FAREWELL, MY LOVELY. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free. And who will win the game?

greatly enjoyed both the movie and book storylines, Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2017. This book is a cool, classy spy thriller, which paints a vivid picture of early '60s Europe, in particular Berlin.

A nice copy of the author's third book. Hard to explain the tremendous pleasure I get reading a great master of the spy story when there is so much drivel around. Deighton's book, well written as usual, takes place more in London than Berlin, with brief sections in the coast of Spain next to the French border, Bordeaux and Prague. Good spy story around the start of the Berlin Wall, Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2018. There was a problem loading your book clubs. In 1973, the TV series Jason King (starring Peter Wyngarde), used the plot from Funeral in Berlin to smuggle an individual out of East Germany. The contents of the coffin is very different in the movie versus the book.

(Ostensibly, they had been using a plot from a book written by eponymous hero Jason King but it turns out at the end that it was a double bluff. Refresh and try again.

And struggling to get their expense accounts approved by their bosses.

But it soon becomes apparent that behind the facade of an elaborate mock funeral lies a game of deadly manoeuvres and ruthless tactics.

I will take a break from Deighton for a while before coming back to more Harry Palmer. [1] Despite the protagonist's scepticism, the deal seems to have the support of Russian security-chief Colonel Stok and Hallam at the Home Office. It was like theatre, but is war for real. Plot summary ‘Harry Palmer’ - who is unnamed in the novel, but familiar to us from his film moniker - is asked to go Berlin to arrange the defection of a Soviet scientist called Semitsa.