It's only a matter of time before National Lampoon do what they did to Tolkien and Frank Herbert to dear old Robert Ludlum. This guys has done the time and is nothing less than the icon of icons...
When my eldest was tiny I made this joke about reading Robert Ludlum to him for bedtime stories - only it was only half a joke - with the forseeable result that he now has an enyclodaedic knowledge of military aircraft, small hand guns, and has grown up wanting to be an arms dealer....
He's still very sweet though.
I have said nothing if I say that this man has single handedly defined a whole genre of film and other (there's that word again) associated iconography, which is all literature, rarely transmogrified into cinema.
I have almost never regretted picking up one of his paper bricks up and reading myself senseless with it. It's especially good for when exams are pending,and you need some lubricious diversion. And, after all, who made that phone call last night? Was it a wrong number? Your kid over on the other block going to tell you she'll be at her friends for tea?
No way. It was a member of Mossad keeping checks on you. Who was that guy who bumped into you at the checkout? You know, that guy with the East German accent?
And who the hell were those guys at the bus stop, anyway?