Cookstrip home as a weekly feature in The Observer. The first cookstrip, "Cooking Beef: Part 1", appeared in The Observer on March 18, 1962 eight months before the release of Deighton's debut novel, The IPCRESS File. The "Len Deighton's Action Cookbook" which expanded these cookstrips into a full-length book was published March 1965, timed to coincide with the release of the film of "The Ipcress File" starring Michael Caine. Deighton chose the menu for the movie's press lunch and everyone was presented with a copy of the book. In the movie, Caine's character, Harry Palmer, is seen cracking eggs with one
The Ipcress File (film) is told that this is what he is paid for. "The Ipcress File" was an ironic and downbeat alternative to the portrayal of espionage in Ian Fleming's novels about the spy James Bond and the film series which followed from them. Harry Saltzman, who produced this film, was one of the producers of the early Bond films. Among other crew members who worked on "The Ipcress File" and had also worked on the Bond films up to this point were the production designer Ken Adam, the film editor Peter Hunt and the film score composer John Barry. "The Ipcress File"