Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang: The Boom in British Thrillers from Casino Royale to The Eagle Has Landed
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WINNER OF THE HRF KEATING AWARD FOR BEST NON-FICTION CRIME BOOK 2018An entertaining history of British thrillers from Casino Royale to The Eagle Has Landed, in which award-winning crime writer Mike Ripley reveals that, though Britain may have lost an empire, her thrillers helped save the world. With a foreword by Lee Child.When Ian Fleming dismissed his books in a 1956 letter to Raymond Chandler as ‘straight pillow fantasies of the bang-bang, kiss-kiss variety’ he was being typically immodest. In three short years, his James Bond novels were already spearheading a boom in thriller fiction that would dominate the bestseller lists, not just in Britain, but internationally.The decade following World War II had seen Britain lose an Empire, demoted in terms of global power and status and economically crippled by debt; yet its fictional spies, secret agents, soldiers, sailors and even (occasionally) journalists were now saving the world on a regular basis.From Ian Fleming and Alistair MacLean in the 1950s through Desmond Bagley, Dick Francis, Len Deighton and John Le Carré in the 1960s, to Frederick Forsyth and Jack Higgins in the 1970s.Many have been labelled ‘boys’ books’ written by men who probably never grew up but, as award-winning writer and critic Mike Ripley recounts, the thrillers of this period provided the reader with thrills, adventure and escapism, usually in exotic settings, or as today’s leading thriller writer Lee Child puts it in his Foreword: ‘the thrill of immersion in a fast and gaudy world.’In Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Ripley examines the rise of the thriller from the austere 1950s through the boom time of the Swinging Sixties and early 1970s, examining some 150 British authors (plus a few notable South Africans). Drawing upon conversations with many of the authors mentioned in the book, he shows how British writers, working very much in the shadow of World War II, came to dominate the field of adventure thrillers and the two types of spy story – spy fantasy (as epitomised by Ian Fleming’s James Bond) and the more realistic spy fiction created by Deighton, Le Carré and Ted Allbeury, plus the many variations (and imitators) in between.
Оглавление
Mike Ripley. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang: The Boom in British Thrillers from Casino Royale to The Eagle Has Landed
Copyright
Dedication
SPOILER ALERT
THRILLERS
FOREWORD
PREFACE
Chapter 1: A QUESTION OF EMPHASIS
Chapter 2: THE LAND BEFORE BOND
Chapter 3: DO MENTION THE WAR
Chapter 4: TINKERS, TAILORS, SOLDIERS, SPIES. BUT MOSTLY JOURNALISTS
Chapter 5: END OF EMPIRE
Chapter 6: TRAVEL BROADENING THE MIND
1960s
1970s
Chapter 7: CLASS OF ’62
Chapter 8: THE SPIES HAVE IT, 1963–70
Spy Fever
The heirs to James Bond
HUGO BARON
JOHN CRAIG
DR JASON LOVE
CHARLES HOOD
BOYSIE OAKES
QUILLER
MODESTY BLAISE
ANNA ZORDAN
JONAS WILDE
MICHAEL JAGGER
PHILIP MCALPINE
The Man Himself
The Passengers
Chapter 9. THE ADVENTURERS, 1963–70
Chapter 10. THE STORM JACKAL HAS LANDED – THE SEVENTIES
The Veterans
The Sixties’ Graduates (Adventurers)
Graduates of the Spy School(s)
Chapter 11. THE NEW INTAKE
Chapter 12. ENDGAME
Appendix I. THE LEADING PLAYERS. DESMOND BAGLEY
FRANCIS CLIFFORD
LIONEL DAVIDSON
LEN DEIGHTON
IAN FLEMING
FREDERICK FORSYTH
DICK FRANCIS
ADAM HALL
JACK HIGGINS
HAMMOND INNES
JOHN LE CARRÉ
GAVIN LYALL
ALISTAIR MACLEAN
BERKELY MATHER
WILBUR SMITH
ALAN WILLIAMS
Appendix II. THE SUPPORTING CAST
JAMES ALDRIDGE
PATRICK ALEXANDER
TED ALLBEURY
EVELYN ANTHONY
WILLIAM ASH
W. HOWARD BAKER
BRIAN BALL
KENNETH BENTON
JOHN BINGHAM
GAVIN BLACK
IAN STUART BLACK
JOHN BLACKBURN
JOHN BRAINE
JOHN MICHAEL BRETT
DAVID BRIERLEY
ANTHONY BURGESS
JOHN BURKE
JON BURMEISTER
LESLIE BUTLER
ALAN CAILLOU
BRIAN CALLISON
VICTOR CANNING
ELLIOTT CANNON
YOUNGMAN CARTER
ROBERT CHARLES
JON CLEARY
BRIAN CLEEVE
DESMOND CORY
PATRICK COSGRAVE
STEPHEN COULTER
DAVID CRAIG
GEOFFREY DAVISON
ADAM DIMENT
MICHAEL DINES
IVOR DRUMMOND
JAMES EASTWOOD
CLIVE EGLETON
NICHOL FLEMING
PETER FLEMING
ALFRED FLETT
JAMES FOLLETT
KEN FOLLETT
COLIN FORBES
STEPHEN FRANCES
JOHN FREDMAN
BRIAN FREEMANTLE
REG GADNEY
ALAN GARDNER
JOHN GARDNER
ANDREW GARVE
WINSTON GRAHAM
JOHN GRIFFIN
WILLIAM HAGGARD
PALMA HARCOURT
JOHN HARRIS
DUFF HART-DAVIS
SIMON HARVESTER
RAYMOND HAWKEY
JOSEPH HONE
GEOFFREY HOUSEHOLD
HARTLEY HOWARD
GEOFFREY JENKINS
RONALD JOHNSTON
BRADSHAW JONES
DEREK LAMBERT
CHRISTOPHER LANDON
BOB LANGLEY
JAMES LEASOR
EDWIN LEATHER
BRIAN LECOMBER
ANTHONY LEJEUNE
TOM LILLEY
RICHARD LLEWELLYN
PATRICK LONG
DESMOND LOWDEN
NICHOLAS LUARD
GEORGE MACBETH
CHARLES MACHARDY
GEORGE B. MAIR
GEORGE MARKSTEIN
DEREK MARLOWE
JAMES MAYO
PHILIP McCUTCHAN
HUGH McLEAVE
ANTONY MELVILLE-ROSS
JAMES MITCHELL
JAMES MOFFATT
STANLEY MORGAN
JAMES MUNRO
FREDERICK NOLAN
DOUGLAS ORGILL
GEOFFREY OSBORNE
JOHN PALMER
JAMES PATTINSON
LAURENCE PAYNE
RITCHIE PERRY
CHAPMAN PINCHER
JOYCE PORTER
ANTHONY PRICE
PHILIP PURSER
COLIN ROBERTSON
MANNING K. ROBERTSON
GEOFFREY ROSE
ANGUS ROSS
JOHN ROSSITER
H. T. ROTHWELL
KENNETH ROYCE
DOUGLAS RUTHERFORD
K. ALLEN SADDLER
JOHN SANDERS
JIMMY SANGSTER
DONALD SEAMAN
OWEN SELA
GITTA SERENY
GERALD SEYMOUR
GERALD SINSTADT
DESMOND SKIRROW
RALPH STEPHENSON
DOMINIC TORR
NIGEL TRANTER
JAMES TREVOR
ANTONY TREW
WARREN TUTE
PETER VAN GREENAWAY
CONRAD VOSS BARK
MARTIN WADDELL
PETER WAY
NOAH WEBSTER
DENNIS WHEATLEY
JAMES DILLON WHITE
TED WILLIS
DIANA WINSOR
JON WINTERS
THOMAS WISEMAN
MARTIN WOODHOUSE
MICHAEL WOODMAN
JAMES YARDLEY
ANDREW YORK
NOTES & REFERENCES. Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Appendix I: The Leading Players. Desmond Bagley
Francis Clifford
Lionel Davidson
Len Deighton
Ian Fleming
Frederick Forsyth
Dick Francis
Adam Hall
Jack Higgins
Hammond Innes
John Le Carré
Gavin Lyall
Alistair MacLean
Berkely Mather
Wilbur Smith
Alan Williams
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & BIBLIOGRAPHY
Published Sources:
INDEX
Also by Mike Ripley
About the Publisher
Отрывок из книги
For Len Deighton,
who has a lot to answer for.
.....
That debut novel of Lionel Davidson is as good a punctuation point as any. The 1950s had well and truly ended and the Swinging (and Spying) Sixties were upon us.
Lots of things, especially thriller-writing, were about to change.
.....