Set in the years foreshadowing World War II, Eric Ambler’s spy novels introduced a new realism to the classic spy mystery. In this BBC Radio collection some of Ambler’s best known novels are dramatised and brought together. 

‘Epitaph for a Spy’ – Josef Vadassy, a Hungarian language teacher, collects his photographs from the chemist only to discover that the pictures are of military sites. Originally published in 1938, this is a brand new dramatisation.

‘Journey into Fear’ – Also a new dramatisation. It is 1940, and Mr Graham, a quietly-spoken engineer and arms expert, has just finished high-level talks with the Turkish government. And now somebody wants him dead.  

‘The Levanter’ – Michael Howell has rescued his family’s firm from nationalisation by co-operating with the new Syrian government. But can he avoid the other political forces that are at work in the Middle East? A dramatisation of Eric Ambler’s Gold Dagger-winning story of intrigue, terror and double dealing. 

This collection also features a 45-minute autobiographical play about Ambler during the war and Ambler at 80, a profile by Michael Barber of the author ‘the father of the modern spy story’ – recorded for his 80th birthday.