Len Deighton, one of the masters of the spy novel has died aged 97. His Ipcress File later made into a movie with Michael Caine as Harry Palmer became an instant hit coinciding as it did with the troubled zeitgeist – the building of the Berlin Wall, the uncovering of Soviet moles and heightening cold war tensions. It was pitched as “anti-Bond” with a wise-cracking hero, not from the officer class.
Deighton himself was born 18 February 1929 in London, with parents who were a live-in cook and chauffeur in a house with 15 servants. He was multi-talented starting as a graphic designer and ultimately writing 21 novels, five of them in the spy genre with three made into films, two cookbooks and a comic novel, a television play, two film scripts and became established as a military historian.
He had a final degree Aquarius Sun opposition Neptune which was trine/sextile a Mars in Gemini opposition Saturn in Sagittarius. His Mercury in Aquarius square Jupiter Chiron in Taurus may account for his prolific output and wide range. His Taurus North Node was conjunct the destructive Fixed star Algol – and that plus his Mars Saturn would be what plugged him into the excitement, violence and fear of spycraft.
Ian Fleming, 28 May 1908 12.10 am London, the James Bond creator, another Air Sun in his case in Gemini, also had a harsh Mars conjunct North Node square Saturn; and Uranus opposition Neptune.
And John Le Carre, 19 October 1931, London, of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy renown was a Libra Sun Mercury with a fearsome Mars in Scorpio opposition Chiron Algol and trine Pluto. He was of the Depression generation with the bleak Saturn opposition Pluto square his Libra Sun Mercury and opposition Uranus in a Cardinal Grand Cross giving him extraordinary resilience and initiative.
All different kinds of writers but with Air Suns, aggressive Mars and emphasised Uranus which last would put them on their own individual path.
Len Deighton Quotes:
“In Mexico an air conditioner is called a politician because it makes a lot of noise but doesn’t work very well.”
“The tragedy of marriage is that while all women marry thinking that their man will change, all men marry believing their wife will never change.”
“Progress is man’s indifference to the lessons of history.”