Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang: The Boom in British Thrillers from Casino Royale to The Eagle Has Landed. Mike Ripley
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Published by COLLINS CRIME CLUB
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017
Copyright © Mike Ripley 2017
Foreword © Lee Child 2017
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017
Cover illustration: detail from When Eight Bells Toll by Alistair MacLean © HarperCollinsPublishers 1981 (front); Robert Kyle’s Kill Now, Pay Later by Robert McGinnis © Dell Publishing/Penguin Random House 1960 (back).
Author photograph © Mike Ripley
Mike Ripley asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions on the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
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Source ISBN: 9780008172237
Ebook Edition © May 2017 ISBN: 9780008172244
Version: 2017-11-20
For Len Deighton,
who has a lot to answer for.
There will be spoilers. Live with it. Many of the thrillers referred to here were published fifty years ago. You’ve had time.
‘A book, film, or play depicting crime, mystery, or espionage in an atmosphere of excitement and suspense.’
Collins English Dictionary
‘What exactly is a thriller? The term seems to cover a multitude of sins and quite a fair proportion of virtues.’
Margery Allingham, 1931
‘You after all write “novels of suspense” – if not sociological studies – whereas my books are straight pillow fantasies of the bang-bang, kiss-kiss variety.’
Ian Fleming in a letter to Raymond Chandler, 1956
Contents
Chapter 1: A Question of Emphasis
Chapter 2: The Land Before Bond
Chapter 4: Tinkers, Tailors, Soldiers, Spies. But Mostly Journalists.
Chapter 6: Travel Broadening the Mind
Chapter 8: The Spies Have It, 1963–70
Chapter 9: The Adventurers, 1963–70
Chapter 10: The Storm Jackal Has Landed – The 1970s
Appendix I: The Leading Players
Appendix II: The Supporting Cast
Acknowledgements & Bibliography