Photo: Ulf Andersen/Getty Images (1986)
Sample of authors
Deighton, Len
The British author Len Deighton was born as Leonard Cyril Deighton in London. His father was a chauffeur; his mother worked in a hotel kitchen. He was a boy when he helped his father as a volunteer during the London Blitz. After leaving school he worked briefly as a railway clerk, and at the age of seventeen he joined the Royal Air Force Special Investigation Branch as a photographer. He then...
Literary figures
José da Silva
Gender: Male
He is tall and dark, with a thin, sun-tanned face which is distinguished by a well-trimmed moustache. He comes from a ‘fine’ family, which has not prevented him from getting a job with the police force, where José da Silva – called Zé by his friends – is promoted to police captain in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. He is a smoker, doesn’t like flying and successfully solves cases in a suite of novels by...