FIGHTER: THE TRUE STORY OF THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN

By Len Deighton

Synopsis

Len Deighton’s thrilling history of the ensuing Battle of Britain – the aerial combat between the RAF and the Luftwaffe that was fought over the summer of 1940. Ex-RAF pilot Deighton expertly recounts the development of the aeroplanes – the Spitfires and Messerschmitts – and of radar. Behind the strategies and tactics, and in the cockpits of the aeroplanes, are the men brought vividly to life by Deighton’s skill as a novelist.

Sample Player

Narrator	John Hobday
Length	11hrs
Catalogue No.	12909
Publisher	Collins; 2014

Other audiobooks by Len Deighton

BERLIN GAME

First book of the 'Game, Set and Match' Trilogy. Bernard Samson is put back into the field, after 5 years of being desk-bound, to help a high-ranking ‘mole’ come over the Berlin Wall.

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Texan billionaire General Midwinter will stop at nothing to bring down the USSR - even if it puts the whole world at risk. The fourth and final novel featuring the cynical, insolent narrator of The IPCRESS File sees him sent from his shabby Soho office to bone-freezing Helsinki in order to penetrate Midwinter's vast anti-Communist network - and stop a deadly virus from wiping out the planet.

BLOOD TEARS AND FOLLY

This unflinching history of the darkest days of the Second World War covers the entire world stage, from the Battle of the Atlantic to Pearl Harbor. Rooted in the personal accounts of the soldiers themselves, Blood, Tears and Folly is a sweeping, moving account of the political machinations, the strategy and tactics, the weapons and the men on both sides who created a world of devastation.

BOMBER

31 June, 1943. An RAF crew prepare for their next bombing raid on Germany. It is a night that many will never forget. Len Deighton's devastating novel is a gripping minute-by-minute account of what happens over the next twenty-four hours. Told through the eyes of ordinary people in the air and on the ground - from a young pilot to the inhabitants of a small town in the Ruhr - Bomber is an unforgettable portrayal of individuals caught up in the wreckage of war.

CHARITY

Bernard Samson returns to Berlin in the final novel in the classic spy trilogy, FAITH, HOPE and CHARITY. Bernard continues to chip away at the mystery of his sister-in-law Tessa Kosinski's death in Berlin on the crucial night when his wife Fiona was brought out of the East. Fighting to uncover the truth, he must also confront the key relationships in his own life: Fiona is still far from stable now that she has returned to work, and their children remain in the clutches of his wealthy and manipulative father-in-law. Meanwhile, Werner Volkmann, Bernard's friend since childhood, is reluctant to get involved in Bernard's crusade.

CITY OF GOLD

It is 1942 in Cairo and Rommel is advancing steadily. All the Allies' best efforts are being thwarted by a Nazi spy and Bert Cutler, a police inspector, is sent to find the traitor.

DECLARATIONS OF WAR

These stories cover 23 centuries of warfare, from Hannibal’s march on Rome on to the American Civil War, to the skies of France in World War Two and to the battlefields of Vietnam.

AN EXPENSIVE PLACE TO DIE

Paris in the 1960's caters for every taste, and nowhere more than at the private 'clinic' run by the enigmatic Monsieur Datt on Avenue Foch, which supplies psychedelic drugs and sexual favours to the city's elite - all the while secretly filming guests in order to blackmail them. Into this decadent underworld steps a bespectacled British spy. Sent on what seems like a simple mission, he soon finds himself playing a game where the rules are unknown - and even victory could be fatal.

FAITH

Bernard Samson returns to Berlin in the first novel in the classic spy trilogy, FAITH, HOPE and CHARITY. Bernard has known that he is not getting the full picture from London Central ever since discovering that his wife Fiona was a double agent. Werner Volkmann has been cast out by London Central as untrustworthy. Yet Werner still seems able to pick up information that Bernard should have been told...

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In Berlin, where neither side of the wall is safe, Colonel Stok of Red Army Security is prepared to sell an important Russian scientist to the West – for a price. British intelligence are willing to pay, with their own top secret agent to act as go-between. But it soon becomes apparent that behind the facade of an elaborate mock funeral lies a game of deadly manoeuvres, in the intricate moves of cold war espionage…

HOPE

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HOPE

Bernard Samson returns to Berlin in the second novel in the classic spy trilogy, FAITH, HOPE and CHARITY. Bernard is trying hard to readjust his life in the face of questions about his wife Fiona, and her defection to the East. Is she the brilliant high-flyer that her Department seems to think she is? Or is she a spent force, a wife and mother unwilling or unable to face her domestic responsibilities? Bernard doesn't know but is determined to find out. Bernard's boss Dicky Cruyer is certainly not anxious to reveal what he knows, as he jostles for power with Fiona herself in London Central, and takes to the road with Bernard on a mysterious mission to Poland.

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Our anonymous secret agent from The Ipcress File (13623) is now working with his WOOC(P) boss Dawlish. But he must draw on all his abilities, good and bad, when plunged into a story of murder, betrayal and greed every bit as murky as the waters off the coast of Portugal, where the answers lie buried.

THE IPCRESS FILE

The nameless protagonist of this adventure - later christened Harry Palmer - is transferred from British Military Intelligence to a civilian department known as WOOC(P). Here, an apparently straightforward operation to trace a missing biochemist leads him to confront a massive conspiracy.

LONDON MATCH

Long-suffering spy Bernard Samson has, against all the odds, enticed a Soviet agent to defect to London - but this proves to be the start of something even bigger. For he learns that there is treachery within his own Service, and no one is free from suspicion. To discover who really controls the game of spies, he must attempt a desperate gamble. As the Game, Set and Match trilogy reaches its shattering finale, who will make the winning move?

MEXICO SET

Bernard Samson is sent to Mexico in order to 'enrol' the East German Erich Stinnes, a man he knows already, having been interrogated by him in East Berlin.

SPY HOOK

Millions of pounds have gone missing, and the Department have sent agent Bernard Samson to Washington to track them down. But this mission is just the start of something far deeper and darker. It will take him from the English suburbs to Berlin, the South of France to Los Angeles and the heart of a maelstrom. In the first part of the Hook, Line and Sinker trilogy, friends become enemies, pursuer becomes victim and no one - not even Bernard himself - is above suspicion.

SPY LINE

Bernard Samson is a spy on the run. But in the murky streets of Berlin, he knows where to hide. Wanted for an act of treachery he has not committed, he must not only escape the grasp of London Central, but get to the bottom of a tangled conspiracy that is about to change everything. In the thrilling penultimate instalment of the Hook, Line and Sinker trilogy, Bernard's personal and professional life collide with devastating consequences.

SPY SINKER

Of all the mysteries Bernard Samson has encountered, the greatest is his wife Fiona. Dedicated agent of the Service and a woman of secrets, she will risk everything to play the long game. As the truth about the decision that shattered their marriage is gradually revealed, the web of deception that has snared Bernard for ten years begins to unravel. In the gripping, tragic finale of the Hook, Line and Sinker trilogy, everything we thought we knew is brought into question.

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SS-GB

In February 1941 British Command surrendered to the Nazis and for nine months Britain has been occupied. At Scotland Yard, Detective Inspector Archer is assigned to a routine murder case. But when higher powers are brought in to the investigation, Archer finds himself caught up in an espionage battle.

VIOLENT WARD

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Peter and Paul, the two sons of German businessman Harald Winter, are bonded together by a childhood trauma. But as they grow up the brothers also grow apart. When the shadow of the Third Reich falls they become divided by war and their differing ideals - only to meet again years later at the Nuremberg trials. An epic prelude to the Bernard Samson Game, Set and Match trilogy, Winter is a rich, tragic portrait of the fortunes of a family, and a nation, over half a century.

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Steve Champion is enigmatic, charming, urbane, cunning - the flamboyant hero and leader of the old Villefranche anti-Nazi intelligence group, the Guernica Network. Now rumours of his sinister Arab connections alarm British and American intelligence.