City of Gold

This book has been read, no wear to covers or dust jacket, no markings inner pages. Some mild staining to page edges, spine intact, no creases. "Cairo, 1942 - A city ruled by Egyptian royalty, occupied by the British military, seething with spies and deserters. Here in a hotbed of corruption, espionage, and profiteering, the war will reach a turning point and the future of the free world will be decided. Captain Bert Cutler, late of the Glasgow police, has been brought to Egypt with one purpose: to find Rommel's spy and plug the remarkable leak of exact intelligence that is making the Axis advance toward Cairo unstoppable. In a heady atmosphere of social gaiety, explosive politics, black marketeering, and sudden violence, Alice Stanhope, the beautiful young aristocrat with a well-connected mother in Alexandria; Prince Plotr, the aging Tsarist; Peggy West, the handsome British nurse awaiting her husband's return from a distant secret mission; exquisite Zeinab el-Shazil and her handsome brother, Sayed; Solomon al Masri, the wily arms dealer; Wally Wallingford, the reckless adventurer with his Independent Desert Teams; and a host of others will be ensnared in the tangled web of intrigue. From the formal headquarters of British Intelligence through the ancient streets of Cairo to bohemian soirees at the Hotel Magnifico...from a flamboyant houseboat on the Nile to remote desert villages and the shell-shattered wastes of the Sahara, Bert Cutler must pursue his clever and elusive prey. Even as the odds against the Allies escalate and the only victory possible must be snatched from the jaws of defeat, he dreams of a life with the lovely Alice, keenly aware that he himself is not what he seems. He is a man caught in a strange twist of fate...a man playing a brilliant charade. He is a man who has attended an inquiry into his own death and may yet live to face a charge of murder. Seizing a crucial moment of history and bringing it vividly to life in all its drama, irony, and ambiguity, Len Deighton has created a brilliant and compelling thriller that will grab you on the first page and hold you spellbound to the very end." Good Reads "Deighton was born in Marylebone, London, in 1929. His father was a chauffeur and mechanic, and his mother was a part-time cook. After leaving school, Deighton worked as a railway clerk before performing his National Service, which he spent as a photographer for the Royal Air Force's Special Investigation Branch. After discharge from the RAF, he studied at St Martin's School of Art in London in 1949, and in 1952 won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1955.

Deighton worked as an airline steward with BOAC. Before he began his writing career he worked as an illustrator in New York and, in 1960, as an art director in a London advertising agency. He is credited with creating the first British cover for Jack Kerouac's On the Road. He has since used his drawing skills to illustrate a number of his own military history books.

Following the success of his first novels, Deighton became The Observer's cookery writer and produced illustrated cookbooks. In September 1967 he wrote an article in the Sunday Times Magazine about Operation Snowdrop - an SAS attack on Benghazi during World War II. The following year David Stirling would be awarded substantial damages in libel from the article.

He also wrote travel guides and became travel editor of Playboy, before becoming a film producer. After producing a film adaption of his 1968 novel Only When I Larf, Deighton and photographer Brian Duffy bought the film rights to Joan Littlewood and Theatre Workshop's stage musical Oh, What a Lovely War! He had his name removed from the credits of the film, however, which was a move that he later described as "stupid and infantile." That was his last involvement with the cinema.

Deighton left England in 1969. He briefly resided in Blackrock, County Louth in Ireland. He has not returned to England apart from some personal visits and very few media appearances, his last one since 1985 being a 2006 interview which formed part of a "Len Deighton Night" on BBC Four. He and his wife Ysabele divide their time between homes in Portugal and Guernsey." Good Reads