Journal Entry 1 by UrbanSpaceman from Kingston upon Thames, Greater London United Kingdom on Monday, January 02, 2006

Saw the film years ago. Bought this copy to see how the book compares. Onto the TBR pile. 

Journal Entry 2 by UrbanSpaceman from Kingston upon Thames, Greater London United Kingdom on Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Although written in the early 1960s, Len Deighton's first spy thriller stands the test of time very well. The story is told in the first person by a nameless narrator (later called Harry Palmer in the film of the book) who, perhaps unusually for the epoch, is not an upper class/officer/gentleman, but a working class/NCO type who is always careful to sneer at his supposed 'betters' and to be as insolent as he can get away with.

Nowadays we are used to seamy spy novels, with double agents and constant betrayal (which to judge from the TV programmes I recall, Deighton developed further in his later Bernard Sampson/Hook, Line and Sinker stories). When IPCRESS was written, though, I'm sure this was much more radical, especially compared to the James Bond 'spy fantasies' that Ian Fleming was turning out at the same time. 

Journal Entry 3 by UrbanSpaceman at The Pottery , Park Road in Kingston upon Thames, Greater London United Kingdom on Sunday, March 19, 2006

Released 6 yrs ago (3/28/2006 UTC) at The Pottery , Park Road in Kingston upon Thames, Greater London United Kingdom

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

This book will be released at the next Kingston BookCrossing Meetup - Tuesday 28 March, 7-11 pm. All are welcome - we'll be sitting in the sofas and will have piles of books and a BookCrossing sign with us. For more information, please PM UrbanSpaceman. 

Journal Entry 4 by KLL from Perth, Western Australia Australia on Monday, April 10, 2006

This is a spy book isn't it? I'll be upset if it isn't.

(Picked up at - I think - March Kingston Meetup. It's destined to be 'D' in my Alphabet Challenge. ) 

Journal Entry 5 by KLL from Perth, Western Australia Australia on Friday, May 19, 2006

Hmmmm... I guess I was expecting this to be more James Bond-ish than it actually was. I'm sure 'The Ipcress File' is probably more true to a spies life, but the first half of the book seemed to invovle the protagonist aimlessly wandering from one case to another, with no main aim. It became more apparent what was going on in the second half, but then suddenly it was all over!

I understand that the James Bond books are going to be hopelessly unrealistic ( let's not even get into the movies!) but generally I've found them a more engaging read than this.

Am passing this on to my Dad (in Perth, Western Australia) to see how he gets on with it. 

Journal Entry 6 by AnonymousFinder on Monday, May 29, 2006

a very exciting read-unexpected ending leaving Dan Brown for dead!

CAUGHT IN KALAMUNDA(PERTH) WESTERN AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA