Ambler, Eric (1909-1998), British novelist, regarded as the pioneer of the modern spy thriller. He was born in London and educated at Colfe’s Grammar School and London University. In 1927 he took an apprenticeship in engineering but later moved into advertising, rising to become director of a London ad agency. His parents had been performers and during the 1920s he was also a comedian and playwright. He moved to Paris in the late 1930s to concentrate on writing.

Between 1936 and 1940 he published six classic thrillers The Dark Frontier (1936), Uncommon Danger (1937), Epitaph For A Spy (1938), Cause For Alarm (1938), The Mask Of Dimitrios (1939), and Journey Into Fear (1940), that redefined the rules of the genre, establishing a formula, later also adopted by Graham Greene, where an innocent abroad finds himself drawn into a morally ambiguous world of international intrigue and corruption. Where Ambler differed from thriller writers of the previous generation, such as John Buchan, was in his cynicism. His stories vividly captured the dark side of pre-World War II Europe, marking a shift towards greater realism. They were also brisk, intelligently plotted, and had a strong sense of atmosphere. Ambler published 19 novels under his own name and 4, co-written with Charles Rodda, under the pseudonym Eliot Reed. His later novels include The Schirmer Inheritance (1953), Dirty Story (1967), and The Intercom Conspiracy (1970).

In 1938 Ambler became a script consultant for Alexander Korda, and after making propaganda films for the War Office during World War II, began working as a screenwriter for Rank. He later lived in Hollywood, where he developed two successful television shows, and in Switzerland. His screenplays include Passionate Friends (1949), The Card (1952), The Cruel Sea (1953), The Purple Plain (1954), and A Night to Remember (1958). Many of his novels have been filmed, including the commercially successful Topkapi (1964), adapted from The Light of Day (1962). He published an autobiography, Here Lies Eric Ambler, in 1981 and received an OBE in the same year.