Eric Ambler - Life, Works, Bibliography

Novelist and playwright, born in London, UK. He studied at Colfe's Grammar School and London University, and worked as an advertising copy-writer before turning to writing thrillers, invariably with an espionage background. He published his first novel, The Dark Frontier, in 1936. His best-known books are Epitaph for a Spy (1938), The Mask of Dimitrios (1939), Dirty Story (1967), and The Intercom Conspiracy (1970). He received the Crime Writers' Association Award four times, as well as the Edgar Allan Poe Award (1964). Later books include Here Lies: An Autobiography (1985) and The Story So Far (1993).

Eric Ambler (28 June 1909 - 22 October 1998) was an influential English writer of spy novels who brought a level of realism to the field that had generally been absent in earlier works.

Life

Ambler was born in London, to a family of entertainers, putting on a type of puppet show with which he helped.

At that time, Ambler was politically a staunch anti-Fascist and like many others tended to regard the Soviet Union as the only real counterweight - which was reflected in the fact that some of his early books include Soviet agents depicted as positive and sympathetic characters, the undoubted allies of the main protagonist.

Works

His best known works are probably The Mask of Dimitrios (1939), which became a classic film noir in 1944 and The Light of Day (1962), filmed in 1964 as Topkapi and also lampooned in The Pink Panther (1963). Amongst other classic movies based on his works are Journey Into Fear (1943), starring Orson Welles, and The October Man (1947). He published his autobiography in 1981, Here Lies Eric Ambler.

A recurring theme in Ambler's books is having as the main character an amateur who finds himself unwillingly in the company of hardened criminals and/or spies. Such plots occur, for example, in Journey into Fear, The Light of Day and Dirty Story.

A second movie of his novel The Light of Day, to be entitled The Topkapi Affair, has been announced and is scheduled for release in 2007, with Pierce Brosnan producing as well as starring.

Greil Marcus wrote a penetrating analysis of Ambler's early work, published among his collected articles in The Dustbin of History (1995).

Bibliography

The Dark Frontier (1936) Uncommon Danger (apa Background to Danger - U.S.) (1937) Epitaph for a Spy (1938) Cause for Alarm (1938) The Mask of Dimitrios (apa A Coffin for Dimitrios - U.S.) (1939) The Army of the Shadows (1939) in The Queen's Book of the Red Cross Journey into Fear (1940) Skytip (1950) (as Eliot Reed) Judgment on Deltchev (1951) Tender to Danger (1951) (as Eliot Reed) (aka Tender to Moonlight) The Schirmer Inheritance (1953) The Maras Affair (1953) (as Eliot Reed) Charter to Danger (1954) (as Eliot Reed) The Night-Comers (1956) (apa State of Siege) Passport to Panic (1958) (as Eliot Reed) Passage of Arms (1959) The Light of Day (1962) (apa Topkapi) (Edgar Award for Best Novel, 1964) The Ability to Kill: And Other Pieces [SS] (1963) A Kind of Anger (1964) Dirty Story (1967) (apa This Gun for Hire) The Intercom Conspiracy (1969) (apa The Quiet Conspiracy) The Levanter (1972) Doctor Frigo (1974) Send No More Roses (1977) (apa The Siege of the Villa Lipp - U.S.) The Care of Time (1981) Here Lies: An Autobiography (1985) (Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical Work, 1987) Waiting for Orders [SS] (1991) (apa The Story so Far) The Intrusions of Dr. Czissar The Army of Shadows The Blood Bargain