Ken Follett is a famously successful novelist and here I am 42 years later reading his novel and watching the subsequent movie for the very first time.
It happened in 1978 and I missed it completely. Ken Follett’s novel “The Eye of the Needle” was was immensely popular when it was published. Ken Follett went on to write some 30 or so novels. Some, like this one were turned into equally popular movies. I also missed the 1981 film “Eye of the Needle” staring Donald Sutherland.
Talk about being behind the eight ball. If I were tailing Ken Follett you could say I gave him more than a decent head start. I’ve no idea why! Now I can’t even remember what was consuming my young life so completely in 1978 that I missed such a readable book.
And it is a readable book. It’s a Second World War spy story and based, just a little, on the subterfuge used by the Allies to trick the Germans into not suspecting that the D-Day invasion would come at Normandy, as it did. But only a little. The rest of the tense spy-chaser tale is as fictional as “The Thirty Nine Steps” itself.
Even 42 years after it’s initial publication under the title “Storm Island” and before it’s more intriguing retitling as “The Eye of the Needle”, it is an exciting and easily read novel. Ken Follett came by his fame and his fortune quite honestly. The fake historical ending, dropped from the film, is its only smaltzy weak spot. But hey, nothing’s perfect.
And so, for a book published in 1978 and a film released in 1981, I raise a rather long delayed shout of praise and a, now, almost historical commendation. Thank-you Ken and thank-you Donald.
At the End of the Day 