Eric Ambler (1909-98) was born in London to parents who were part-time entertainers. He studied engineering but left college without taking a degree and became a copywriter in the advertising industry. Between 1937 and 1940, he published his great anti-fascist spy thrillers: Uncommon Danger, Epitaph for a Spy, Cause for Alarm, The Mask of Dimitrios, and Journey into Fear. In 1940, he joined the Royal Artillery and was later transferred to the army film unit. After the war he worked as a screenwriter in England and Hollywood and married his second wife, a leading Hollywood producer. Ambler's post-war novels include Passage of Arms, The Light of Day and A Kind of Anger, and his profound influence on the genre has been acknowledged by writers including Graham Greene, Ian Fleming and John le Carrรฉ.
James Fenton has been a foreign correspondent & a theater critic & has written about the history of gardens. His book of poems, "Out of Danger", was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. He won the 2015 PEN/Pinter Prize for poetry. The award, established by English PEN in memory of Nobel-Laureate playwright Harold Pinter, is presented annually for outstanding literary merit by a British writer or writer resident in Britain.