Eric Ambler (1909–1998)
Author of A Coffin for Dimitrios
About the Author
Eric Ambler was born in London on June 28, 1909. Ambler toured in the late 1920s as a music-hall comedian and wrote plays, following in the footsteps of his parents, who were entertainers. After studying engineering at London University from 1924 to 1927, he took an apprenticeship in engineering at show more the Edison Swan Electric Company. When the company became part of Associated Electrical Industries, he worked in its advertising department and wrote avant-garde plays in his spare time. By 1937 he was the director of a London ad agency. He later resigned and moved to Paris where he dedicated himself to writing. In 1936, his first novel, The Dark Frontier, appeared and followed by another five by 1940, as well as working as script consultant for Alexander Korda. During World War II he joined first the artillery and was then later posted to a combat photographic unit. He served in Italy as assistant director of army cinematography and during this period, wrote and produced nearly one hundred training and propaganda films. After the war Ambler was screenwriter for the Rank organization and starting from 1951 he published a number of novels with Charles Rodda under the pseudonym Eliot Reed. Several of his novels were made into films, including A Coffin for Dimitrios in 1944, Journey into Fear in 1942, and Topkapi in 1964. Ambler also wrote screenplays, including those for The Cruel Sea in 1953 and The Guns of Navarone in 1961. In the 1960s he moved to Hollywood and was responsible for the TV shows Checkmate and The Most Deadly Game. Ambler received the Gold Dagger in 1959 for Passage of Arms, in 1967 for Dirty Story and in 1972 for The Levanter. He also received the Diamond Dagger in 1986 plus an Edgar in 1964 for The Light of Day and was nominated Grand Master in 1975. Ambler was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1981, and received other literary awards in France and Sweden. He died in London in October 1998. Ambler published 23 novels total, 19 under his own name and four in collaboration Eric Amber died in London on October 22, 1998, at the age of 89. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Eric Ambler
Intrigue: The Great Spy Novels of Eric Ambler: Journey Into Fear; A Coffin for Dimitrios; Cause for Alarm; Background to Danger (1952) 60 copies, 1 review
The Classic Eric Ambler Box Set (The Care of Time, The Schirmer Inheritance, Send No More Roses) (2015) 2 copies
Schach dem Verbrechen. Authentische Fälle aus den Archiven von Scotland Yard: 2 Bde. (1999) 2 copies
Epitafium dla szpiega 1 copy
The October Man [1947 film] 1 copy
Highly Dangerous [1950 film] — Screenwriter — 1 copy
O Desertor 1 copy
HUn Ipericolo insolito 1 copy
O Estado de Sítio 1 copy
Ambler Eric 1 copy
Tocaia grande 1 copy
Belgrade, 1926 [short story] 1 copy
Topkapi la Luce del Giorno. 1 copy
Associated Works
To the Queen's Taste: The First Supplement to 101 Years Entertainment Consisting of the Best Stories Published in the First Four Years of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (1946) — Contributor — 28 copies
Modern Classics of Suspense: Rebecca, Death and the Sky Above, The Thin Man, The Circular Staircase, Above Suspicion, A Coffin for Dimitrios (1968) — Contributor — 20 copies
Great Mystery Books, 10 Volumes (Journey into Fear, The 39 Steps, And Then There Were None, Maltese Falcon, The Nine Tailors, The Doorbell Rang, The Confidential Agent, The Big… (1967) — Contributor — 6 copies
The Penguin Film Review 9 — Contributor — 1 copy
Journey Into Fear [1975 film] — Original novel — 1 copy
Hånden i sandet og andre virkelige kriminalsager skildret af berømte kriminalforfattere (1974) 1 copy, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Ambler, Eric
- Legal name
- Ambler, Eric Clifford
- Other names
- Reed, Eliot
- Birthdate
- 1909-06-28
- Date of death
- 1998-10-22
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Northampton Polytechnic Institute
- Occupations
- scriptwriter
novelist
advertising copywriter - Organizations
- British Army (WWII/Film and Photographic Unit)
- Awards and honors
- Cartier Diamond Dagger (1986)
MWA Grand Master (1975)
Order of the British Empire (Officer, 1981)
Detection Club (1952) - Short biography
- Eric Ambler was born in London in 1909. Before turning to writing full-time, he worked at an engineering firm and wrote copy for an advertising agency. His first novel was published in 1936. He was awarded two Gold Daggers, a Silver Dagger, and a Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain, was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers Association of America, and was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth. In addition to his novels, Ambler wrote a number of screenplays, including A Night to Remember and The Cruel Sea, which won him an Oscar nomination. Eric Ambler died in 1998.
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- London, Middlesex, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Paris, Île-de-France, France
Switzerland
Los Angeles, California, USA
London, Middlesex, England, UK - Place of death
- London, Middlesex, England, UK
- Map Location
- England, UK
Members
Reviews
Just genuinely the absolute master, effortlessly conjuring up the un-heroic cosmopolitan European mongrel, scarred by English public schooling, a small-time rogue running a minor racket in Greece who picks the wrong mark and gets forced into driving a car across the border to Turkey, not even making it across the border before getting into even more trouble. The plot unwinds, our unheroic hero does his best to get out unscathed. Immensely readable and entertaining.
Dear me, this hasn’t aged well at all, and I couldn’t wait to get to the end of this one. According to Wikipedia, Ambler is known for his thrillers. I can’t say I was thrilled at any stage while reading this lame account of a particularly pathetic British engineer who ends up the victim of espionage agents in pre-WW2 Fascist Italy.
Apart from wanting to punch the “hero” in the face on virtually every page, the storyline is utterly predictable with the only twists being ones where show more the plot gets lost in some kind of bog while you wait for anything remotely thrilling to happen. The somewhat ironically named Marlow – ironic because he’s the complete opposite of Chandler’s Philip Marlowe – spends the whole time acting like a paranoid tourist with the backbone of C3PO. Quite how Zalashoff, the Russian agent who effectively saves him, manages to resist putting a bullet through his head is beyond me.
What Ambler’s done here is what others, such as Buchan, failed to do: create a thriller with a hero who lacks any of the heroic characteristics that were obligatory for thrillers in Ambler’s pre-WW2 era. Now, while this may have been a bold move and undoubtedly influenced the realism embodied in titans such as George Smiley, the fact that the genre was suffering from malaise at the time meant that Ambler got away with it. But while the central character is as realistic as you or me, the storyline is still completely implausible, which is after all what readers of spy novels want.
So, as with many writers who influenced those who have become household names, you’re probably better off reading those they influenced and learning about their legacy from their Wikipedia posts. I won’t be adding any more Amblers to my TBR list anytime soon. show less
Apart from wanting to punch the “hero” in the face on virtually every page, the storyline is utterly predictable with the only twists being ones where show more the plot gets lost in some kind of bog while you wait for anything remotely thrilling to happen. The somewhat ironically named Marlow – ironic because he’s the complete opposite of Chandler’s Philip Marlowe – spends the whole time acting like a paranoid tourist with the backbone of C3PO. Quite how Zalashoff, the Russian agent who effectively saves him, manages to resist putting a bullet through his head is beyond me.
What Ambler’s done here is what others, such as Buchan, failed to do: create a thriller with a hero who lacks any of the heroic characteristics that were obligatory for thrillers in Ambler’s pre-WW2 era. Now, while this may have been a bold move and undoubtedly influenced the realism embodied in titans such as George Smiley, the fact that the genre was suffering from malaise at the time meant that Ambler got away with it. But while the central character is as realistic as you or me, the storyline is still completely implausible, which is after all what readers of spy novels want.
So, as with many writers who influenced those who have become household names, you’re probably better off reading those they influenced and learning about their legacy from their Wikipedia posts. I won’t be adding any more Amblers to my TBR list anytime soon. show less
I didn't quite know what I expected when I picked up Eric Ambler's "A Coffin for Dimitrios", but I certainly didn't expect a work in which identities are shucked off as easily as raincoats and documents — even perfectly authentic documents — can be purchased for a few thousand French francs. the book's characters move around Europe easily, even though German tanks will start rolling through Poland in just a few years, and we meet a number of characters whose nationality is — and show more remains — rather uncertain. Dimitrius himself is a Greek. Or perhaps a Muslim who was adopted by Greek parents who were living in Turkey before Smyrna went up in flames in 1922. But he speaks French — still the language of diplomacy in this book — as do most of the people he interacts with. Eric Ambler was, if I've got this right, mostly a writer of detective fiction, but, in this novel, seems to have foreshadowed postmodern ideas about the fluidity of identity by several decades. Not a bad trick, especially since this one is a joy to read in the best old-fashioned, almost unbearably correct British tradition. Who could have known?
It's clear from early on that the joke here — and there is one — is on the book's main character, Charles Latimore, a successful author of British detective stories who, on a lark, decides to find out how good he is at actual detective work. To his surprise and, occasionally, to his alarm, he is bested at almost every turn by almost every character he comes into contact with, all of whom seem eager to point out the many differences between the English detective fiction he writes and the way that the world actually works. Latimer's unwavering politeness and relative innocence stands in stark contrast to the world he finds himself moving through, which is full of ruthless operators whose motives are profoundly unromantic. "A Coffin for Dimitrios" functions, much of the time, as a sort of critique of the genre it belongs to, and how's that for forward-looking?
Before I finish up this review, though, I don't want to give anyone the idea that this is some sort of Don DeLillo production, full of bland "white writing" and pseudo-ironic observations. Literary fans of the seedy, swinging Paris that existed during the interwar period will find a lot to like here, although Ambler, to his credit, doesn't shy away from the fact that the horrors and disruptions caused by the First World War fueled a lot of these parties and paid for a lot of the cheap glamour that was about during that period. This book is a good reminder that displaced persons camps existed in Europe from the end of the First World War right through to the beginning of the Second. Lastly, I have to mention that I found the ending to this one to be supremely satisfying. "A Coffin for Dimitrius" is still a detective story, after all. show less
It's clear from early on that the joke here — and there is one — is on the book's main character, Charles Latimore, a successful author of British detective stories who, on a lark, decides to find out how good he is at actual detective work. To his surprise and, occasionally, to his alarm, he is bested at almost every turn by almost every character he comes into contact with, all of whom seem eager to point out the many differences between the English detective fiction he writes and the way that the world actually works. Latimer's unwavering politeness and relative innocence stands in stark contrast to the world he finds himself moving through, which is full of ruthless operators whose motives are profoundly unromantic. "A Coffin for Dimitrios" functions, much of the time, as a sort of critique of the genre it belongs to, and how's that for forward-looking?
Before I finish up this review, though, I don't want to give anyone the idea that this is some sort of Don DeLillo production, full of bland "white writing" and pseudo-ironic observations. Literary fans of the seedy, swinging Paris that existed during the interwar period will find a lot to like here, although Ambler, to his credit, doesn't shy away from the fact that the horrors and disruptions caused by the First World War fueled a lot of these parties and paid for a lot of the cheap glamour that was about during that period. This book is a good reminder that displaced persons camps existed in Europe from the end of the First World War right through to the beginning of the Second. Lastly, I have to mention that I found the ending to this one to be supremely satisfying. "A Coffin for Dimitrius" is still a detective story, after all. show less
A mature masterpiece in my opinion. Layer upon layer of ambiguous psychological character analysis feeds this story set in one of Ambler's favorite locales, the French Riviera. So much of this novel takes place within the untrustworthy mind of its main character, Paul Firmin, that it ends up questioning the very stability of memory, as well as revealing self deception, intentional lies that have become "truth," and personal confusions. Has Firmin tricked himself or the reader in this tale? show more
Ostensibly the story of a so-called "Able Criminal," someone an obsessed Dutch criminology professor, Frits Krom, believes is among a shadowy elite of criminals who justice and the police are unable to apprehend, Siege of the Villa Lipp is more than that. It is the discovery of the price someone pays not only for "success" but for the realization that in the modern world success revealed to the public and the self leads to psychosis.
Essentially, the author of the study of the Able Criminal, despite his nagging ways and intrusive manner, is right about Firmin. Firmin is a liar. Most of all to himself. Somewhere, he has lost his "self," his inner being. In its place is a jumble of disorganized memories that may or may not be true. The only thing making Firmin somewhat sympathetic is the cast of characters that surround him. True master criminals that make him look like a playful amateur. Academics who seek the satisfaction of their ego over knowledge and the science of their discipline. Colleagues capable of betrayal, directly and indirectly, meaning you cannot trust anyone. Except perhaps one of them. The one who is willing to follow him to the metaphorical ends of the Earth. show less
Ostensibly the story of a so-called "Able Criminal," someone an obsessed Dutch criminology professor, Frits Krom, believes is among a shadowy elite of criminals who justice and the police are unable to apprehend, Siege of the Villa Lipp is more than that. It is the discovery of the price someone pays not only for "success" but for the realization that in the modern world success revealed to the public and the self leads to psychosis.
Essentially, the author of the study of the Able Criminal, despite his nagging ways and intrusive manner, is right about Firmin. Firmin is a liar. Most of all to himself. Somewhere, he has lost his "self," his inner being. In its place is a jumble of disorganized memories that may or may not be true. The only thing making Firmin somewhat sympathetic is the cast of characters that surround him. True master criminals that make him look like a playful amateur. Academics who seek the satisfaction of their ego over knowledge and the science of their discipline. Colleagues capable of betrayal, directly and indirectly, meaning you cannot trust anyone. Except perhaps one of them. The one who is willing to follow him to the metaphorical ends of the Earth. show less
Lists
Ocean Setting (1)
Reading LIst (5)
Best Spy Fiction (3)
My TBR (2)
Edgar Award (2)
1930s (2)
Folio Society (2)
Matt (1)
Unread books (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 69
- Also by
- 43
- Members
- 10,347
- Popularity
- #2,295
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 216
- ISBNs
- 691
- Languages
- 17
- Favorited
- 34
