Harry Palmer Files — 012 — ARK 10 / Deighton art for sale
Through July, or at least until I run out of things about which to talk, we’ll be looking at the Harry Palmer series of novels (in which the character doesn’t actually have a name), their author — Len Deighton, the films based on them, the star of those films — Michael Caine, and the television movies that followed. I will be re-reading the whole series of novels, re-watching the films, and giving my thoughts on all I encounter. I’ll inevitably be drawing heavily on the collection of Kees Stam, author of The Harry Palmer Movie Site, and Rob Mallows, creator of the Deighton Dossier, and other odds and ends that I’ve turned up over the years.
Rob, mentioned in the introductory sentence above, let members of the Len Deighton Yahoo! group know of an eBay auction that I thought I should pass along here:
In case anyone’s interested, there’s an eBay auction currently going on for a copy of Ark 10.
This is extremely rare, and worth bidding for (currently £9.99 at time of posting). Ark was the in-house magazine if you will of the Royal College of Art, which Deighton attended. He edited this and has an article ‘Abroad in London’ in it which is one of his first ever published works!
These rarely come up, so fans might want to consider bidding. The auction’s here.
This information is supplemented by the illustrations page at Rob’s Deighton Dossier, where he writes:
The production of Ark magazine, which subsequently became a commercial operation creating and designing a high end periodical on art, design and words, was something in which Len Deighton was involved at the time. Many of those who worked with Deighton on Ark and other projects went on themselves to become leading designers and artists. In conversation with Seago, he recounts this time:
“No one knew what the hell ARK was for. When I took over the art editorship at the end of 1953 I said, ‘What’s it all about? Is it a college magazine? Is it something to sell the College to manufacturers and employers? No one knew. It was typically English. No one could decide. In England the whole way of living is predicated upon never defining anything because that way no one can get it right or wrong.”
And courtesy of the Len Deighton Illustrations blog, we have some sample art (more available at the Deighton Illustrations blog post on ARK 10):
Ark 10 Front Cover
Len Deighton Abroad In London
