The Night of Wenceslas by Lionel Davidson
Lionel Davidson's debut thriller was a massive success on first publication in 1960. The New Yorker said it was 'so enriched with style, wit, and a sense of serious comedy that it all but transcends its kind.' Newsweek thought it 'downright superb', and it won the Gold Dagger Award of the Crime Writers' Association. Young Nicholas Whistler, dissolute and disillusioned, lives a life of monotony in London. Caught up in a petty money-lenders' dispute, he is sent to Prague to discharge the debt by carrying out a simple assignment. Instead he is dragged deep into the dangerous world of Cold War espionage and the battle for atomic supremacy. Trapped between the secret police and the amorous clutches of the mysterious Vlasta, Nicholas realises he is now a spy, whether he likes it or not.
Lionel Davidson was born in 1922 in Hull, Yorkshire. He left school early and worked as a reporter before serving in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. His first novel, The Night of Wenceslas, was published in 1960 to great critical acclaim and drew comparisons to Graham Greene and John le Carré. It was followed by The Rose of Tibet (1962), A Long Way to Shiloh (1966), The Chelsea Murders (1978) and Kolymsky Heights (1994). He was thrice the recipient of the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award and, in 2001, was awarded the CWA's Cartier Diamond Dagger lifetime achievement award. He died in 2009.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780571242887 |
| ISBN 10 | 057124288X |
| Title | The Night of Wenceslas |
| Author | Lionel Davidson |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Faber & Faber |
| Year published | 2008-05-29 |
| Number of pages | 240 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |