# Why authors get gray hairs: Len Deighton

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-authors-get-gray-hairs-len-deighton/1030071>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 14, 2026, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-authors-get-gray-hairs-len-deighton/1030071 "2026-05-14T16:37:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Timz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Timz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timz)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2026, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-authors-get-gray-hairs-len-deighton/1030071/1 "2026-05-14T16:37:34Z")

</div>

If you like reading Len Deighton, here’s a puzzle for you.

In the US hardcover of _Berlin Game_ (Knopf, 1983) only the right-hand pages have actual page numbers – the left pages just say “Berlin Game”. In that edition, at least, two left-hand pages (with one right-hand page between them) got transposed. Then when the US paperback came out, it had the out-of-order text. Seeing that, I figured Deighton must not know what had happened in the US, so I wrote to him, decades ago. Sure enough, news to him. I got a letter from his agent (in the UK) saying that the publisher (or someone) had “resolutely” denied that any mistake had been made. So I sent the agent the details, but I didn’t think I needed to send an actual US-edition book. Apparently I should have – I bet if you order a US-published copy now it will still be wrong.

Can you find the transposition? Will be easier if you have the Knopf hardcover, where the text ends on page 345.