A review of the Len Deighton novel “Winter”
Sometimes a book sits on the shelf for such a long time before it is read. This novel was bought for me in 1988 but it took me until 2023 before I actually read it.The Winter of the title is not a season of the year but the name of a German family and this epic novel – it runs to 536 pages – tells the story of that family from 1899 to 1945. Harald Winer is a Berlin businessman who invests in Zeppelin airships. He marries an American and they have two sons, Peter and Pauli, who respond in different ways to the political turmoil of the new Germany.
This family history is a prism for examining the First World War, then the rise of Nazism, and finally the Second World War. Leighton was a prolific author and did a formidable amount of research, so this novel is very readable and illuminating, but it follows so many characters over such a long period of time that one could really have done with a dramatis personae at the beginning.
June 10th, 2023 at 8:26 am
Talking of Len Deighton I wonder what Ian Fleming or John le Carré would have thought of the latest Ipcress File TV series. They allegedly occasionally met up with Len Deighton but alas their meetings ended in arguments about who was best equipped to write the most realistic books. It’s a shame all three focused on fiction. Fiction, fiction, fiction … why are so many spy novels thus? Factual novels enable the reader to research more about what’s in the novel in press cuttings, history books etc and such research can be as rewarding and compelling as reading an enthralling novel.
Furthermore, if even just marginally autobiographical, the author has the opportunity to convey the protagonist’s genuine hopes and fears as opposed to hypothetical stuff any author can dream up about say what it feels like to avoid capture. A good example of a “real” raw noir espionage thriller is the first novel in The Burlington Files series. Its protagonist, Bill Fairclough (MI6 codename JJ) aka Edward Burlington, was of course a real as opposed to a celluloid spy and has even been likened to a “posh and sophisticated Harry Palmer”. Apparently Bill Fairclough who was one of Pemberton’s People in MI6 once contacted John le Carré in 2014 to do a collaboration. John le Carré replied “Why should I? I’ve got by so far without collaboration so why bother now?”
A realistic response from a famous expert in fiction but maybe there was another more compelling and truthful reason. For more beguiling anecdotes best read a brief and intriguing News Article about Pemberton’s People in MI6 dated 31 October 2022 in TheBurlingtonFiles website and then read Beyond Enkription.