City of Gold

5

Having finished her shift at the Base Hospital, Peggy West…

6

Peggy’s fears, about taking Alice Stanhope to the Base Hospital,…

7

No one claimed to remember when or where or why…

8

To the casual observer, the soldiers seemed to belong here.

9

‘I like them. I think those two are the nicest…

10

‘Did you hear that it rained in the desert?’ said…

11

‘The balloon’s gone up,’ said Lionel Marker as he pressed…

12

Bab-el-Hadid barracks was a curious-looking, three-storey structure, built to look…

13

Alice Stanhope had learned to drive her father’s four-litre Brough…

14

Harry Wechsler had been thinking about Alice Stanhope right up…

15

This was a different world. In this strip of desert…

16

Peggy West had seen very little of Prince Piotr until…

17

‘It’s hush hush. Top damned secret, old boy.’ Wallingford grinned…

18

‘Alice tells me you have been thinking of going to…

19

‘It will soon be time to move on,’ Solomon told…

20

Robin Darymple was happier than he had been for months.

21

‘This is my favourite time of year,’ said Wallingford suddenly,…

22

Alice got the news from Peggy West. Peggy spent fifteen…

Postscript

About the Author

Other Books by Len Deighton

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Cover designer’s note

Prompted by seeing the renderings of my two murals for Cunard’s new ship, Queen Elizabeth, Len Deighton suggested that I illustrate some of the covers of this next quartet of re-issues. I am delighted to be given the opportunity to draw once again, as it has been well over thirty years since my days as a regular illustrator for the Sunday Times.

While drawing the figure of Rommel against the background of Cairo’s Citadel Mosque for this book’s cover, I donned headphones and listened to the recording of Len Deighton’s Violent Ward, seeking inspiration for the design of that book. Fortunately the city under threat from the German Field Marshal and that of a modern-day Los Angeles are worlds apart so I was able to breathe life into the ‘Desert Fox’ even as I was being filled with images of the faded glamour, corruption and danger of the City of Angels.

Once again the internet assisted me in locating suitable pieces of ephemera for the back cover, such as the Second World War British Army Tank Corp badge, which is just like Field Marshal Montgomery’s. In preparing it for the camera, I took great pleasure in applying Brasso to the tarnished badge, a task that I had not undertaken since my days serving with the Royal Sussex Regiment in Korea – Monty would have been proud of me! I was also able to obtain a Desert Rat shoulder patch, plus an Afrika Korps sleeve band.

Among a collection of postcards given to me by friends who had acquired them on their Grand Tour, I found several of Cairo’s narrow passages and of the famous Shepheard’s Hotel, and even one of the hotel’s luggage labels.

The book’s spine displays the obverse of an Egyptian 2 piastres coin featuring the image of the sixteen-year-old King Farouk. His portrait is also on the 1940s Cairo stamped envelope. Observant readers will notice that each of the spines in this latest quartet of reissues features a metallic object; a subtle visual link that draws together four books written and set in very different times and places.

I have taken the photograph for this book’s back cover with my Canon 5D camera, and my illustration was drawn with an HB Staedtler pencil.

Arnold Schwartzman OBE RDI

Hollywood 2011

Introduction