Eric Ambler

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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. Ambler also used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for books co-written with Charles Rodda.

1 Life
2 Works
3 Bibliography
4 External links

[edit] Life

Ambler was born in London, to a family of entertainers, putting on a type of puppet show with which he helped. Later he studied engineering at London University and served an apprenticeship with an engineering company. His family background proved dominant, and Ambler soon moved to writing plays and other works. He moved to Paris for a few years, where he married Louise Crombie.

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. And like numerous like-minded people in different countries, Ambler was shocked and disillusioned by the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939.

When World War II broke out, Ambler entered the army as a common soldier, serving briefly in the Royal Artillery. He was soon re-assigned to photographic units, where his talents could be better utilized. He ended the war as a Lieutenant Colonel and assistant director of the army film unit.

After the war, he continued in the civilian film industry as a screen-writer. It was in this capacity that he received an Academy Award nomination in 1953 for his work on the film "The Cruel Sea", a gritty adaptation of the novel by Nicholas Montserrat. He did not resume writing under his own name until 1951, thus breaking his writings into two distinct periods. Five of his six early works are regarded as classic thrillers.

Ambler divorced Louise in 1958, marrying Joan Harrison the same year. They moved to Switzerland in 1969 and back to England 16 years later. Joan died in 1994 in London.

Ambler died in London.

[edit] 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). He was also a successful screenwriter who, in his later years, lived in Los Angeles. 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. Typically, the protagonist is out of his depth and often seems for much of the book a bumbling anti-hero, yet eventually manages to surprise himself as well as the professionals by a decisive action which outwits his far more experienced opponents. Such plots occur, for example, in Journey into Fear, The Light of Day and Dirty Story. Unlike with most other thriller writers, in Ambler's books the main protagonist is rarely a professional spy or policeman.

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).

[edit] 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)