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Cold war Spy Novels who was better John Le Carre or Len Deighton


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Initial post: 27 Feb 2012 20:58:30 GMT
Last edited by the author on 27 Feb 2012 20:59:19 GMT
Andrew W. Macfadyen says:
Len Deighton or John le Carre both wrote excellent cold war spy tales but of the two who was better ?
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In reply to an earlier post on 28 Feb 2012 13:06:47 GMT
Huck Flynn says:
always reckoned Le Carre to be grittier but warmed to Deighton's characters more. Great reads.
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In reply to an earlier post on 28 Feb 2012 16:10:19 GMT
Maria says:
My personal preference is Len Deighton. I am not totally sure why.
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Posted on 28 Feb 2012 17:06:22 GMT
James A. Anderson says:
Both are great, but LeCarre is the more literate writer. Also a former spy himself.
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Posted on 28 Feb 2012 20:06:00 GMT
Andrew W. Macfadyen says:
For all his weakness or perhaps because I could identify strongly with Deighton's Bernard Salmson, I could respect Le Carre's George smiley but never fully identify with him. Perhaps this was becauses Smiley's lot represented the kind of spies Bernard Salmson or Harry Palmer would have resented.

Both Salmson and Smiley carried around a great burden of personal pain from spousal betrayal, Smiley's mental agony every time the unfaithful Anne's name is mentioned is felt by the reader, in the classic BBC TV production Sir Alec Guinness caught this wonderfully.
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Posted on 28 Feb 2012 22:27:45 GMT
tepeethetroll says:
Len Deighton for me - I find him rather more consistent. Le Carre came up trumps with the Karla trilogy (Tinker Tailor etc), and the novels that pre-dated these were very good too, but - for me anyway - some of his later works have been just plain boring.
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Posted on 29 Feb 2012 09:56:08 GMT
Andrew W. Macfadyen says:
I found Deighton's best fiction book was "Winter" as well as fleshing out the back drop against which Salmson grew up it gave me a real understanding of how the Nazis took hold of real power in all levels of German society .

The subjects of Le Carre's post Smiley work were a little too worthy for my tastes although the were well written and contained some interesting characters,
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Posted on 29 Feb 2012 19:26:57 GMT
tepeethetroll says:
Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed "Winter" and the three Bernie Samson trilogies. Another reason for preferring Deighton is his variety of subjects - have you tried the short stories "Declarations of War", or "Only When I Larf" or "Violent Ward" ? All very different from the cold war books.
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Posted on 29 Feb 2012 20:06:44 GMT
Andrew W. Macfadyen says:
Yes i have read them both, another non-cold war one I rate highly is "Goodbye Mickey Mouse", "Bomber" was also a classic.
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Posted on 29 Feb 2012 22:24:07 GMT
tepeethetroll says:
Oh yes, I Thought "Goodbye Mickey Mouse" very good. Wasn't so keen on "Bomber" though......guess he cant please all the people all the time!

Got another one of his in my "waiting to be read" pile; "City of Gold".
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Posted on 3 Mar 2012 23:01:05 GMT
Jackie says:
Try Noble Cause "A CIA Spy Thriller"
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Posted on 23 Feb 2013 11:38:16 GMT
Eric the Red says:
I think this kind of question is virtually impossible to decide 'who is the best' but the reality is that LeCarre really did produce the finest cold war thrillers ever. When I read 'The Spy Who Came In From The Cold' over 40 years ago, I can still remember the thrill of reading a story by a man who was a master author. While typing this, I have just noted that in 2006, Publisher's Weekly voted it the best spy novel ever!
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      Discussion in:  thriller discussion forum
      Participants:  7
      Total posts:  12
      Initial post:  27 Feb 2012
      Latest post:  23 Feb 2013
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