Davidson, Lionel

(British, 1922– )

Born in Yorkshire, Davidson lived for many years in Israel before moving to London. Begin with The Rose of Tibet (1962), in which a schoolteacher searching for his missing brother falls in love with a young Buddhist abbess. Together they flee the Chinese invasion of 1950. In A Long Way to Shiloh (1966) newly discovered scrolls suggest the location of treasure from the Jerusalem temple destroyed in AD 70. Scholarship and Israeli intelligence work together to stay ahead of hostile interest. The Sun Chemist (1976) concerns attempts to reconstruct a formula discovered by former Israeli president and scientist Chaim Weizmann for harnessing solar power from vegetables. Soviet breeding experiments aimed at boosting human intelligence are being carried on in Kolymsky Heights (1994). A suicidal mission is launched to penetrate the top-secret Siberian laboratory.

Desmond Bagley, Bryan Forbes, John Buchan. See SPY, THRILLERS  DH