Funeral in Berlin
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 Book cover |
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| Author | Len Deighton |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Spy novel |
| Publisher | |
| Released | 1964 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
Funeral in Berlin is a spy novel by Len Deighton.
The subject of the novel — arranging a Soviet scientist's defection — is dated, but the characters (especially Johnny Vulkan and Colonel Stok) remain memorable. Another controversial character is the civil servant Hallam, who is shown to be susceptible to blackmail because he is homosexual; male homosexuality remained illegal in England until 1967.
[edit] Legal dispute with Brock's fireworks
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Please see the discussion on the talk page. |
Compare current (2006) attitudes to public safety and product liability with what happened forty years ago.
The novel's publication created a bizarre legal fight. In the UK, when the novel was written, fireworks were only commonly used at bonfire parties to celebrate Guy Fawkes' Night, held on 5th November. Most bonfire parties took place at people's homes. Every year, people - especially children and animals - were hurt by fireworks, and every year there were discussions in the media about the risks from fireworks, and calls for the general sale of fireworks to be banned.
In the climax of the novel, the narrator-hero has a murderous encounter with Hallam at a fireworks party, preceded by a discussion about the hazards of fireworks. British firework manufacturers objected to this text, and forced changes.
As a first step, all printed copies of the Penguin 1966 paperback edition had the word Brock's (the name of a firework manufacturing company) crudely obscured using black felt-tip pen. As a second step, when Penguin re-printed the novel in 1972, whole paragraphs of dissenting dialogue were edited out.
Compare the shortened dialogue from the revised text of the novel:
[quote]
'I personally have always been against it,' said Hallam.
'Alcohol?' I said.
'Fireworks night,' said Hallam.
[unquote]
...with the original pre-censored version, which continues:
[quote]
'Fireworks night,' said Hallam. 'Once a year animals are frightened, children are blinded and burnt. There are terrible accidents, hooligans take advantage of the occasion to throw fireworks into letter boxes and put them in milk bottles. There are cases of them tying them to animals. It's quite a disgusting business. The fire service always suffers casualties, the casualty wards in hospitals are overworked. Who gains?'
'Brock's Fireworks,' I said.
'Yes,' said Hallam, 'and the shops selling them. There is a lot of money changing hands tonight. A lot of us at the Home Office are very much against it, I can tell you, but the interests we are working against are...' Hallam raised flat palms in a gesture of despair.
'They should pay,' said Hallam. 'They should foot the bill for all the damage and accidents and burnt houses that are caused, and if any money is left over after that, it could be paid to the shareholders.'
'But don't they make signal rockets?' I asked,
'Very few, my boy. I've been into the whole business; it is quite degrading that these people make money out of it. Nasty. If the municipal authorities each organised a firework display, that would be another matter...'
[unquote]
From the perspective of a more safety-conscious age, it now seems astonishing - forty years later - that the firework manufacturers were able to censor dialogue between characters in a fictional novel in this fashion. The dialogue is prescient. In the UK, municipal authorities now commonly do organise public firework displays; and the increased legal awareness of public liability would deter any manufacturer from trying to censor fiction of this kind.
[edit] Adaptation
In 1966 a film version of Funeral in Berlin was made starring Michael Caine.
