Eric Clifford Ambler OBE (28 June 1909 – 23 October 1998) was an English author of thrillers, in particular spy novels, who introduced a new realism to the genre.

Ambler was born in Charlton, South-East London, into a family of entertainers who ran a puppet show, with which he helped in his early years.

His postwar anticommunist novel Judgment on Deltchev (1951), based on the Stalinist purge trials in Eastern Europe, caused him to be reviled by many former Communist Party and other progressive associates.

Ambler divorced Crombie in May 1958[4] and married the same year British-born Joan Harrison,[2] a film producer, screenwriter and associate of Alfred and Alma Hitchcock.

Other classic movies based on his work include Journey into Fear (1943), starring Joseph Cotten, and an original screenplay, The October Man (1947).

That plot is used, for example, in Journey into Fear, Epitaph for a Spy, The Mask of Dimitrios, The Night-Comers/State of Siege, Passage of Arms, The Light of Day, Dirty Story, The Levanter and Doctor Frigo.

[7] Many authors of international thrillers have acknowledged a debt to Ambler, including Graham Greene, Ian Fleming,[8] John le Carré, Julian Symons,[4] Alan Furst[9] and Frederick Forsyth.