Len Deighton RIP

One of favorite authors from my late teens into my 20s was Len Deighton, who died today aged 97. Not only for his spy novels that started with The IPCRESS File, but also for his cookery books.

It’s that last connection that made me write this quick post. Back in the day, we moved to France in 1964 and lived in Le Havre for three years. This complete change of lifestyle, customs, and living was startling (plus, having to learn another language at 7 years old). The biggest thing of all was learning a new way of cooking, or cuisine, with different ingredients than we were used to. No beans on toast here.

Right from the start, Dad became very attracted to French cooking. He’d spent about a year commuting back and forth to his new job in Le Havre before my parents decided that we should just move there. During that time, he had to look after himself, and this involved going to restaurants when he couldn’t be bothered to cook. In which, of course, he ate and enjoyed many different food and recipes. I remember him saying once how much he enjoyed a bowl of mussels in one of his fave restaurants. Wot’s mussels?

In 1967 he bought a couple of recipe books, authored by Len Deighton: Action Cook Book, and Où Est Le Garlic.

Deighton's cookbooks

The fascinating thing about these cookbooks is that they are based on the cookstrips that Deighton used to write for the Observer newspaper. Cookstrips that had an illustration drawn by Deighton himself that accompanied the recipe or cooking details.

Let’s put it like this: Dad used these books a lot, even when we moved back to England. I was lucky in that when Mum and Dad passed away 16 years ago, I managed to grab the books before my sister could. Ha!

It has one recipe that I use a lot: Rillettes. Mainly because I fell in love with rillettes du Mans (which are made with duck, not pork) when I was young. Dad used it too, since he even wrote a couple of things to help with the recipe.

Rillettes recipe

The other thing about Deighton’s cookstrips that has always made me giggle is the movie The IPCRESS File which starred Michael Caine and which came out in 1965. There’s one scene where Harry Palmer (Caine’s character) is in the kitchen cooking something for Jean Courtney (played by Sue Lloyd). There, stuck on the kitchen wall, is … a Deighton cookstrip torn out from the newspaper.

Cookstrip on wall

It's actually a cooking recipe from Où est Le Garlic:

Braisé recipe

Anyway, I’ll be going downstairs into our basement to find the DVD of The IPCRESS File and I’ll be watching it again. RIP, Mr Deighton.

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