However, there was a revival of interest when, in 2017, the BBC screened a dramatisation of SS-GB, nearly 40 years after the publication of the novel on which it was based.
And, in 2022, The IPCRESS file – the book that started it all – was remade for ITV, starring Joe Cole, Lucy Boynton and Tom Hollander.
Deighton rarely gave interviews and never considered himself a natural writer.
“The best thing about writing books, he said on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs programme, “is being at a party and telling some pretty girl you write books.
“The worst thing is sitting at a typewriter and actually writing the book.”
But, from time to time, he said, being an author has its advantages.
“When you make a book,” he once said, “it’s like making a hand grenade. It’s a dull process but when you throw it the person at the other end gets the effect.”