Remembering Len Deighton: The Ipcress File author reveals how he wrote a best-seller that imagines what would happen if Hitler won World War II

Today, it was announced that British author Len Deighton has sadly passed away at the age of 97.

As a big movie fan, I always associate Len Deighton with thrilling spy stories. His novel, The Ipcress File from 1962, was fantastic and became a really memorable film with Michael Caine – it even won a BAFTA! It’s cool to see how enduring the story is, because they recently remade it for ITV in 2022, with Joe Cole, who you might know from Peaky Blinders, taking on the lead role.

This article, originally from the TopMob archive, features Len Deighton discussing how he wrote his 1987 novel, SS-GB, which presents a scenario where Nazi Germany occupies Britain. The novel was adapted for television by the BBC in 2017, with Sam Riley and Kate Bosworth in leading roles.

The idea for my novel, SS-GB, came suddenly. My editor and I were chatting late one night – we were just having coffee – about the research I’d done for my previous books, Fighter and Blitzkrieg. He wondered what would have happened if Britain had lost the war in 1940. I replied that while we don’t know the full story, German archives actually detail their plans for occupying Britain, including who would have been involved. It’s surprisingly interesting material.

“Would it make a book?” asked the other man at our table, my close friend Ray Hawkey.

“Perhaps. But what kind of book?”

“An ‘alternative world’ story,” said Ray.

I met Ray at the Royal College of Art, and he played a big part in making my books successful. He didn’t just design the covers – his design for The Ipcress File was particularly groundbreaking – he also created all sorts of clever promotional items. For SS-GB, he famously designed booklets of fake British postage stamps featuring Hitler, which are now highly collectible.

I wasn’t initially excited about writing a story set in a different world. I’d generally stayed away from science fiction and fantasy, and I already had a good idea of what I wanted to write for the next three years. It was the mid-1970s, and I’d fallen into writing almost by chance. For most of my career, I was actually an illustrator. But even though I’ve always been focused on visuals and how things look, books are made entirely of words. Words are a writer’s most important tool, and the goal is to share a story with the reader as if confiding in a close friend.

It’s no surprise I take so much time getting ready and researching, and then carefully build the story’s structure. I obsess over every page, constantly revising and refining, always with my heavily used dictionary nearby.

Just like with cooking or building, the key to writing a good book lies in thorough preparation. Books often start with scattered ideas, usually sparked by a setting and the characters who inhabit it. These initial choices then guide decisions about the overall tone and how the story will be told – for example, will it be told from a first-person or third-person perspective? Will it be set in the past or present? And will it include humor?

Ray’s idea really stuck with me, but I hit a wall trying to figure out who my main character should be. I thought about making him German – I lived there for a while and knew a lot of people with all sorts of backgrounds. I’m the type who believes you have to take chances as a writer if you want to grow, and I usually do. But the thought of centering the story around a German just didn’t feel right. To tell the story the way I envisioned, he needed to be someone within the German administration. However, I really didn’t want to try and create a sympathetic English collaborator – basically, a traitor! He couldn’t be a decorated war hero; they’d all likely be gone – killed, injured, or in a POW camp. And he couldn’t be on the run either; I wanted to be able to really show what life was like in occupied England without that limitation.

I was nearly ready to give up on the project, but then I had lunch with writer Ted Allbeury at a fish and chip shop in Marylebone and explained my difficulties. That’s when I had a breakthrough. Ted had a fascinating background – before becoming a novelist, he’d been a high-ranking Army intelligence officer, and during the war, he was the only British agent to parachute into Germany. After the war, while stationed in Germany, the locals mistakenly, but consistently, believed he was the head of the British Gestapo – a misconception he eventually stopped trying to correct.

I don’t recall the exact moment the idea for SS-GB came to me, but by dessert – a steamed golden pudding – my main character was starting to take shape as a London police officer. That night, I developed this character further. Douglas Archer would be a well-known detective from Scotland Yard’s murder investigation team. He would be positioned within the German occupation forces, but wouldn’t participate in the Nazis’ oppressive actions.

Just because I wanted to write this story didn’t mean it would be simple. The London I needed to portray—the London of the 1970s—was vastly different from what it had been in 1941. Everything from the buildings and communication methods to the police and political landscape had changed dramatically. To make the story feel real, I’d have to be incredibly careful to avoid details that didn’t fit the time period. Luckily, I remembered 1941 London well enough to help me navigate those challenges.

I realized I could base the settings in my book on places I actually remembered – my house, school, the people and shops in my neighborhood. I also recalled details of life during the war: the bombed-out buildings, the blackouts, and the everyday struggles like rationing food and getting by with limited fuel and hot water. Most vividly, I remembered the Londoners themselves – their quiet worries, their attempts to stay calm, and their remarkable sense of humor.

By the 1970s, the original Scotland Yard building—the setting I envisioned for my character Archer’s office—had been repurposed for government officials and was off-limits to the public. This presented a significant challenge. Fortunately, an old friend, Freddy Warren, who worked in the Whip’s Office, used his connections to help. He arranged unrestricted access for me and even found a retired police officer to act as my guide, sharing stories about how things used to be.

The Metropolitan Police generously allowed me complete access to their archives and museum. I spent days examining photos of detectives from the 1940s – all in suits and ties – and learning about actual crimes that happened during the war. This incredible access was a huge help to my research and greatly informed my book.

I expected people might object to my research, worrying they wouldn’t want to help me portray a scenario where Germany won the war and Britain was under its control. However, that didn’t happen at all. I didn’t encounter any resistance or criticism. People were mostly curious or found the idea amusing. Many expressed their strong dislike of the Germans and were glad we ultimately won the war. Importantly, everyone I interviewed – including German veterans, even high-ranking officers like generals and SS officers – seemed to trust my approach to describing these difficult, fictional events.

I still had a lot of planning to do before I could begin writing. I chose a detective story structure to help keep the narrative focused. The core idea was a murder introduced on the first page, with the solution revealed at the very end. I researched the German plans for occupying territory, using them as a guide, but recognizing they might not have been followed perfectly either. I created a chart detailing the German command structure – the army, the SS, the puppet government they would install, and the local police. I also watched newsreels of Germany and other countries after the war to get a better sense of the setting.

I envisioned a stark, colorless story, mirroring the grey of SS uniforms. The setting had to be winter, with a generally gloomy and frigid atmosphere. It felt right, then, that I began writing in an old house nestled in the Tuscan mountains. Despite the picturesque images of Italy, that winter was brutally cold. My wife and young sons were there as I struggled with a manual typewriter I’d bought locally, my hands becoming swollen and discolored from the effort. I’d desperately searched the nearby town of Barga for an electric typewriter, but couldn’t find one.

I ran into a major problem that I couldn’t solve. As I finished the first draft, I realized using a first-person narrator just wouldn’t work. It was impossible for my detective, Douglas Archer, to be in two places at once – both London and at sea. I had to scrap the whole draft, buy more paper, and start over. It’s at times like those that a writer seriously considers finding a different career!

Authors

Len Deighton

2026-03-17 21:08

Authors

Read More