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Title: Here Lies - An Autobiography

Author: Eric Ambler

Narrator: Christopher Oxford

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-07-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

Finally we hear from the master himself. The writer whom Graham Greene called "unquestionably our best thriller writer" and who John le Carré once called "the source on which we all draw". If his 1985 autobiography, the self-deprecatingly entitled Here Lies Eric Ambler, is to be believed, his intention as a young man was to be a playwright. Ambler found a novel way (forgive the pun) to introduce his first full length work, by giving his girlfriend a bound page proof in a cinema on King's Road, Chelsea, just before the lights went down. So became The Dark Frontier (1936) and thereafter some of the greatest thrillers of the 20th century, such as Epitaph for a Spy, Cause for Alarm, The Mask of Dimitrios and Journey into Fear, a good number of which were reduced to film and other "media" (before such things were called media). Not long after finishing Journey into Fear Ambler stopped writing and joined the army, later working for Ealing Studios and J. Arthur Rank, where he adapted Nicholas Montserrat's The Cruel Sea for film before decamping for fame and relative fortune in Hollywood. In 1958 he married Joan Harrison, Alfred Hitchcock's long time assistant and collaborator. Hitchcock even organised their wedding. Get inside the mind and life of one of the inventors and indeed archetypes of the thriller genre.

Members Reviews:

The Autobiography

Here Lies Eric Ambler

Was Eric Ambler the "greatest thriller writer"? John Buchan, E. Philip Oppenheim, and Ian Fleming may not agree. Ambler's early novels set a high level that were not continued in his later novels. If a successful novel reflects the concerns of its audience, a change in either results in a lesser success. The twelve chapters in this book represent his recollections of his life, and the war. This book lacks a Table of Contents and an Index, like a mystery novel.

Chapter 1 describes his driving accident in Switzerland, and his experiences on a book tour in America. Chapter2 tells about his family background and early life and schooling. Chapter 3 tells of his teen-age years. Eric won a full scholarship to an engineering college (Chapter 4). But he cut classes to attend trials and earn money (p.69). Eric learned to sell unwanted light bulbs by inventing an advantage for its defect (p.89). Chapter 6 tells of his years in advertising before the war.

Chapter 7 tells of his life and beginning career as a writer (pp.120-121). His first novel was "The Dark Frontier". Next "Background to Danger" (p.123) based on information from refugees and other sources. On vacation in Tangier he planned "Epitaph for a Spy" (p.128); a newspaper paid to serialize it. Ambler vacationed at a small resort where he wrote "Cause for Alarm" (Chapter 8). His next book was "The Mask of Dimitrios". When the Hitler-Stalin Pact was announced Ambler and Louise left Paris for England and were married. He wrote a series of short detective stories about a Czech refugee "Dr. Czissar", and began writing "Journey into Fear" (p.155). Ambler went to America to give talks, then returned to England after the Fall of France.

Ambler was called up to the Army (Chapter 9). He would be a driver for a mechanized Army. Next an Officer Cadet for AA gunnery (p.169).