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The IPCRESS File
- Penguin Modern Classics
- Narrated by: James Lailey
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
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The IPCRESS File
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
Now a new six-part ITV drama starring Joe Cole, as iconic spy Harry Palmer, Lucy Boynton and Tom Hollander.
A high-ranking scientist has been kidnapped. A secret British intelligence agency must find out why. But as the quarry is pursued from grimy Soho to the other side of the world, what seemed a straightforward mission turns into something far more sinister. With its sardonic, cool, working-class hero, Len Deighton's sensational debut The IPCRESS File rewrote the spy thriller and became the defining novel of 1960s London.
Critic reviews
"A stone-cold Cold War classic." (Toby Litt, Guardian)
"Changed the shape of the espionage thriller...there is an infectious energy about this book which makes it a joy to read." (Daily Telegraph)
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What listeners say about The IPCRESS File
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Greg Turnbull
- 14-10-22
Classic Modern Spy Story
Great story (of course), well performed, but note that the Movie & recent TV Show vary slightly from the book & thus the audiobook presented here, but interesting none the less...
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- MadMat
- 09-02-22
Still awesome after 60 years. Great narration
Great book after having been written 60 years ago. Great narration by James Lawley.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anthony Beal
- 03-11-21
Magnificent
Just magnificent in every way. This has to be an essential read (or listen, if consumed as an audiobook.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jan
- 15-05-22
Very, very good and extremely well narrated.
Very, very good and extremely well narrated. different from the story told in the film version and TV version so well worth a read. charecterisation and plot are wonderful and the sense of time and place beautifully created.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 22-11-22
Good Story from Len Deightons. Great narration.
I really enjoyed this having watched the film many years ago and James Lailey does a superb job of the narration.
The story unfolds as a great spy thriller and has you wanting for more but then to me kind of fisseled out at the end with a slightly unbelievable plot.
It's still a good book though and I really enjoyed it so don't regret the credit it cost.
Possibly Deighton's later efforts are more complete.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- hfffoman
- 13-02-24
Engrossing but...
I enjoyed this, especially the narration. The usual spy story tricks, where the narrator withholds information to make it all cryptic and clever, is laid on thickly.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- A P Harris
- 18-10-21
An amazing listen
When you have seen the now icon film starring Michael Cane it's hard to believe that an audio book of the same story can be as gripping and as ground breaking as this one is. The pace, style and sheer coolness of this reading is more than equal to its ceiloid counterpart. James Lailey reading is immaculate as is the quality of the recording. This is a hugely entertaining and enjoyable book, I can't wait to hear more from Len Deightonn and James Lailey.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Ian Smith
- 22-12-21
Good version of a classic story
I first read this story as a teenager, and enjoyed reading all this series over the years. It's interesting now to realise how different Britain was in 1962 from the one around us today.
Good narration by James Lailey, who isn't quite imitating Michael Caine! Given the character's own reference to going to school in Blackburn, it might have been interesting to hear it narrated with a suitable accent.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Karl K
- 29-10-22
very different to the film
the performance is very good, the storyline is convoluted in the middle and doesn't add anything but that said enjoyed it
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Philip R.
- 21-09-22
Painful.
Without doubt this is one of the worst books I have ever read. The plot is so thin that it is probably only there to provide a framework for Deighton to showcase a stream of clumsy sentences designed to make him look like he's cultured and intelligent. The protagonist has a chip on his shoulder, about not being part of the public school establishment. So we have the absurd parade of cultural references to show this Cockley Wide Boy knows as much as the toffs, from etiquette to Mozart's 41st symphony.
God it's tiresome.
The details of the spying game are all trivial and uninteresting but included in absolute minutiae to the extent of added footnotes and appendixes.
The narration is just a very poor impersonation of Michael Caine.
But the book bares little resemblance to the film, so why do it?
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