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  • Published: 5 January 2022
  • ISBN: 9780241505533
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $22.99

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy




An action-packed Cold War thriller set in the deserts of North Africa

A Soviet space scientist defects to win academic freedom, but western intelligence has other plans for him, and sends an unnamed spy - perhaps the same reluctant hero of The IPCRESS File - to look after him. But what follows is a blood-streaked trail across three continents...

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Spy reveals a more mature Deighton exploring relationships between couples: professional rivals and private allies, spy and counter-spy, master and slave. Some are drawn together mutual comfort, others for exploitation. With an uncanny feeling for landscape, he begins his story in the awesome emptiness and remorseless heat of the Sahara desert. From there a trail of blood leads to Manhattan, Paris, Dublin and halfway back across Africa.

In a narrative as compelling as it is tantalizing, Deighton surpasses all his previous triumphs and holds the reader spellbound to the very last page.

  • Published: 5 January 2022
  • ISBN: 9780241505533
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Len Deighton

Len Deighton is the author of over thirty bestsellers of carefully researched fiction and non-fiction. His history writing was encouraged by A. J. P. Taylor and his books are noted for the picture they provide of the German side of the fighting as well as that of the Allies. His books include Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain and Blood, Tears and Folly: An Objective Look at World War II, both published by Pimlico.

Also by Len Deighton

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Praise for Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy

The master at his peak.

Daily Telegraph

Classic, world-ranging, marvellously knowledgeable ... in a word, quality.

The Times

For sheer readability he has no peer.

Evening Standard