During the interwar years, no writer did more to revitalize the British thriller than Eric Ambler. By 1940, with six novels to his credit, a critical consensus had emerged: he was Britain's premier novelist of international intrigue, his works the “well into which everyone had dipped”, John Le Carre would later write (quoted in Herbert Mitgang, “Still Writing After All These Years” 1995). Graham Greene counted himself one of Ambler's “disciples”; and Anthony Burgess coined the term “Amblerian” to characterize the distinctive blend of intrigue and pervasive dread characterizing his best work. In 1986, fifty years after his debut novel
The Dark Frontier, Ambler received the first Diamond Dagger award conferred by the Crime Writers Association (CWA) in recognition of the…
2691 words
Citation: Kelly, R. Gordon. "Eric Ambler". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 October 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=99, accessed 24 November 2024.]
