Charity cover art

Charity

Penguin Modern Classics

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Charity

By: Len Deighton
Narrated by: James Lailey
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Bernard Samson returns to Berlin in the final novel in the classic spy trilogy Faith, Hope and Charity.

Bernard continues to chip away at the mystery of his sister-in-law Tessa Kosinski's death in Berlin on the crucial night when his wife, Fiona, was brought out of the East. Fighting to uncover the truth, he must also confront the key relationships in his own life: Fiona is still far from stable now that she has returned to work, and their children remain in the clutches of his wealthy and manipulative father-in-law. Meanwhile, Werner Volkmann, Bernard's friend since childhood, is reluctant to get involved in Bernard's crusade.

A wonderful depiction both of covert operations and office politics, Charity is packed with action, incident and intrigue, bringing to a triumphant conclusion a series of 10 novels that represents one of the great achievements of modern English fiction.

©2021 Len Deighton (P)2021 Penguin Audio Espionage International Mystery & Crime Mystery Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Fiction

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Fourth Protocol cover art
My Name Is Nobody cover art
A Killer in King’s Cove cover art
The Insider cover art
Fatal Ally cover art
Skelton's Guide to Blazing Corpses cover art
Charlie M cover art
The Cold, Cold Ground cover art
The Protector cover art
The Garden of Angels cover art
Murder Offstage cover art
When the Lion Feeds cover art
The Scarlet Papers cover art
All stars
Most relevant
Mostly good story with excellent narration and some good set pieces, particularly Werner's party, but the resolution of the protagonist's career and personal life are conveyed in a single long speech by another character. The narrative groundwork for these has not been done, so the specifics feel unconvincing and unearned. Even so, the protagonist takes this cue to plan major changes to the lives of his partner and children without consulting or even informing them, for the second time in this one volume.

This is really not the satisfying finale I expected. There is a strong feeling that Deighton is wrapping up a project that once interested him, but with little concern for what might interest me as a reader. I suppose that's legitimate, but I don't have to like it, and accordingly I don't.

Disappointing conclusion

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I've gone through the 3 trilogies plus the Winter prequel (useful, almost vital!) and am well satisfied with the lot. Won't give anything away, but the Bernard Sansom epic is a worthy alternative to Le Carre's Smiley. Very different in tone, and maybe a bit more human, but a great read or listen all the same.

Wow, a great set of books

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A superb final instalment of the trilogy of trilogies. I didn’t want this to end, ever, though all good things do. Well done Mr Deighton.

Simply superb

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An excellent performance from James Lalley. Tour de force! And I fell under the spell of Berlin when I didn't expect to. And I enjoyed the ennealogy (yes, that's what nine parts are called - I looked it up in a swotty moment.) There were irritations, but, come on, it's a hell of an achievement. But I need to talk about it.
I enjoy espionage literature. The discussion of craft and the action descriptions carried me along. But I found I had problems with characterisation. Minor issue, I know the books are meant to stand alone, but I found the repetition of things like Dickie's curly hair and strange (not to mention camp) wardrobe tiresome. I have a great aural memory so repetitions grate eventually. And I binge-read.
My main issue is encapsulated in the writer's note that Fiona and Gloria were a composite of his wife. Were I Mrs D I would be quite offended, but then Mr and Mrs D are the generation above me, with attitudes commensurate.. Gloria, (crikey, the last Gloria I met was at art school in '62, even then it was an old-fashioned name) vapid dippy and suddenly a genius, unbelievable - had I realised Cambridge could so easily accept candidates I would have tried earlier. And she's always gorgeous, leggy, wonderful figure etc etc ad nauseam. Fiona is almost a bloke. Both are two-dimensional. I make no other apologies, they don't work as real women (pace E.M. Forster). And the underlying career/family theme was well gone by 1987. Old hat. I know. I lived it.
The women are either gorgeous or tarts or dragons. Clue. I was a dragon.
Bernard is a snob, pure and simple, not even an inverted one, perfectly balanced with a chip on each shoulder, and he'd be horrified to be told how middle-class he is. With as many Daddy issues as Fiona.
But I enjoyed it (I can forgive the 'Carrier' watch - easily done, or' joolery' or the obvious fear of the make-up bag).
But I also need to put a massive plug in for 'Winter' which I enjoyed on a deeper level and ar more. I thought this wonderful, on a story level and for excellent writing.
So maybe (another swotty moment, I should have called it a decology.)
Anyway, thank you Mr Deighton. Glad I listened.

Sorry/Not sorry to finish the triple trilogy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved this. Ended just as I had hoped. V ingenious plot and all the fav characters taking part. The narrator helps to Make this series.
Well done James.
Will read the whole series again later in the year. So gripping.

Super last in the series. All knots tied in most ingenious ways.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews