John le Carré
Encyclopedia
David John Moore Cornwell (born 19 October 1931), who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels
. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5
and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré". His third novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
(1963) became an international best-seller and remains one of his best known works. Following the novel's success, he left MI6 to become a full-time author.
In 1990, le Carré received the Helmerich Award which is presented annually by the Tulsa Library Trust
. He is a 2011 recipient of the Goethe Medal
.
Le Carré has since written several novels that have established him as one of the finest writers of espionage fiction in 20th century literature. In 2008, The Times
ranked le Carré 22nd on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers
since 1945".
, Dorset, England, UK. He was the second son to the marriage, the first being Tony, two years his elder, now a retired advertising executive; his younger half-sister is the actress Charlotte Cornwell
; and Rupert Cornwell, a former Independent newspaper Washington bureau chief, is a younger half-brother. John le Carré said he did not know his mother, who abandoned him when he was five years old, until their re-acquaintance when he was 21 years old. His relationship with his father was difficult, given that the man had been jailed for insurance fraud, was an associate of the Kray twins
(among the foremost criminals in London) and was continually in debt. A biographer reports,
"His father, Ronnie, made and lost his fortune a number of times due to elaborate confidence tricks and schemes which landed him in prison on at least one occasion. This was one of the factors that led to le Carré's fascination with secrets."
Later, in the novel A Perfect Spy
(1986), father Ronnie featured as 'Rick Pym' the scheming con-man father of protagonist 'Magnus Pym'. When father Ronnie died in 1975, le Carré paid for a memorial funeral service but did not attend.
Cornwell's formal schooling began at St Andrew's Preparatory School
, near Pangbourne
, Berkshire, then continued at Sherborne School
; he proved unhappy with the typically harsh English public school régime of the time, and disliked his disciplinarian housemaster, Thomas, and so withdrew. From 1948 to 1949, he studied foreign languages at the University of Bern in Switzerland. In 1950 he joined the Intelligence Corps of the British Army
garrisoned in Austria, working as a German language interrogator of people who crossed the Iron Curtain
to the West. In 1952, he returned to England to study at Lincoln College, Oxford
, where he worked for MI5
, spying upon far-left groups for information about possible Soviet agents
.
When Ronnie declared bankruptcy in 1954, Cornwell quit Oxford to teach at a boys' preparatory school; however, a year later, he returned to Oxford and graduated with a First Class Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in 1956. He then taught French and German at Eton College
for two years, afterwards becoming an MI5 officer in 1958; he ran agents, conducted interrogations, tapped telephone lines, and effected break-ins. Encouraged by Lord Clanmorris
(who pseudonymously wrote crime novels as 'John Bingham'), and whilst an active MI5 officer, Cornwell began writing Call for the Dead
(1961), his first novel. Moreover, Lord Clanmorris was one of two inspirations – Vivian H. H. Green
being the other – for George Smiley
, the master spy of the Circus. As a schoolboy, Cornwell first met Green when he was the Chaplain and Assistant Master at Sherborne School (1942–51), and then later as Rector at Lincoln College.
In 1960, Cornwell transferred to MI6, the foreign-intelligence service, and worked under 'Second Secretary' cover in the British Embassy at Bonn
; he later was transferred to Hamburg
as a political consul
. There, he wrote the detective story
A Murder of Quality
(1962) and The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
(1963), as John le Carré, a pseudonym required because Foreign Office officers were forbidden to publish in their own names; in the event, Cornwell left the service in 1964 to work full-time as the novelist 'John le Carré' – 'John the Square', in French. His intelligence officer career was ended by the betrayal of the covers of British agents to the KGB
by Kim Philby
, a British double agent
(of the Cambridge Five
). Le Carré depicts and analyses Philby as 'Bill Haydon
', the upper-class traitor, code-named Gerald by the KGB, the mole George Smiley
hunts in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
(1974); after publication, the novelist revealed that spymaster Smiley's model was Vivian H. H. Green
.
In 1964 Le Carré won the Somerset Maugham Award
, established to enable British writers younger than thirty-five to enrich their writing by spending time abroad.
. They had one son, Nicholas, who writes as Nick Harkaway
. Le Carré has resided in St Buryan
, Cornwall, UK, for more than forty years where he owns a mile of cliff close to Land's End.
(1961) and A Murder of Quality
(1962) – are mystery fiction
wherein the hero George Smiley
(of the SIS
, the Circus) resolves the riddles of the deaths investigated; the motives are more personal than political.
The spy novel œuvre of John le Carré stands in contrast to the physical action and moral certainty of the James Bond
thriller established by Ian Fleming
in the mid nineteen-fifties; the le Carré Cold War features unheroic political functionaries aware of the moral ambiguity of their work, and engaged in psychological more than physical drama. They experience little of the violence typically encountered in action thrillers, and have very little recourse to gadgets. Much of the conflict they are involved in is internal, rather than external and visible.
Unlike the manichean
moral certainty of Fleming's British Secret Service adventures, le Carré's Circus spy stories are morally complex, and inform the reader of the fallibility of Western democracy and of the secret services protecting it, often implying East-West moral equivalence.
A Perfect Spy
(1986), chronicling the boyhood moral education of Magnus Pym, as it leads to his becoming a spy, is the author's most autobiographic espionage novel – especially the boy's very close relationship with his con man
father. Biographer Lynndianne Beene describes the novelist's own father, Richard Cornwell, as 'an epic con man of little education, immense charm, extravagant tastes, but no social values'; le Carré reflected that 'writing A Perfect Spy is probably what a very wise shrink would have advised'.
Most of le Carré's novels are spy stories usually occurring during the Cold War
(1945–91); the notable exception is The Naïve and Sentimental Lover
(1971), an autobiographical, stylistically uneven, mainstream novel of a man's post-marital existential crisis. Another diversion from East-West conflict is The Little Drummer Girl
, dipping into the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
With the fall of the Iron Curtain
in 1989, le Carré's œuvre shifted to portrayal of the new multilateral world. For example The Night Manager
, his first completely post-Cold-War novel, deals with drug and arms smuggling in the murky world of Latin America drug lords, shady Caribbean banking entities, and look-the-other-way western officials.
As a journalist, he wrote The Unbearable Peace (1991), a non-fiction account of Brigadier Jean-Louis Jeanmaire
(1911–92), the Swiss Army officer who spied for the USSR from 1962 until 1975. In 2009, he donated the short story 'The King Who Never Spoke' to the Oxfam 'Ox-Tales
' project, which included it in the project's Fire volume.
published le Carré's article "The United States Has Gone Mad", which condemned the approaching Iraq War. He observed within this essay, "How Bush and his junta succeeded in deflecting America's anger, from Bin Laden
to Saddam Hussein
, is one of the great public relations conjuring tricks of history."
In 2006, he contributed the above article to a volume of political essays entitled "Not One More Death." The book is highly critical of the war in Iraq. Le Carré's contribution was entitled "Art, truth and politics". Other contributors include Harold Pinter
, Richard Dawkins
, Michel Faber
, Brian Eno
, and Haifa Zangana
.
He is the author of a testimonial in The Future of the NHS
(2006) (ISBN 1858113695) edited by Dr. Michelle Tempest
.
by journalist Jon Snow
at his house in Cornwall
. Conversation involved a few topics: his writing career generally and processes adopted for writing – specifically about his current book, Our Kind of Traitor
, involving Russia and its current global influences, financially and politically; his SIS
career, reasoning why, both personally and more generally, one did such a job then, as compared to now; and how the fight against communism then has now conversely moved to the hugely negative effects of certain aspects of excessive capitalism.
During the interview he made it clear that it would be his last television interview ever. While reticent as to his exact reasons, those he was willing to cite were that of slight self-loathing (which he considered most people feel), along with a distaste for showing off (he felt that writing necessarily involved a lot of this anyway) and to breaching what he felt was the necessarily singular nature of the writer's work. He was also wary of wasting writing time and dissipating his talent in social success, having seen this happen to many talented writers, to the detriment of their later work. A week after this purportedly final television appearance, however, le Carré was interviewed on television in the United States, on the programme Democracy Now!
. Cornwell's explanation aired on Democracy Now!
on Monday 11 October 2010.
Le Carré was interviewed on the 27 February 2011 episode of the CBS
program Sunday Morning
, and once again announced that it would be the last interview he would grant. His longest interview may have been that recorded in 2010 by Canadian radio broadcaster Eleanor Wachtel,
later a podcast at CBC.
, Mark Lawson asked him to name a Best of le Carré list of books; the novelist answered:
Television
Radio
Spy fiction
Spy fiction, literature concerning the forms of espionage, was a sub-genre derived from the novel during the nineteenth century, which then evolved into a discrete genre before the First World War , when governments established modern intelligence agencies in the early twentieth century...
. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré". His third novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold , by John le Carré, is a British Cold War spy novel that became famous for its portrayal of Western espionage methods as being morally inconsistent with Western democracy and values. The novel received critical acclaim at the time of its publication and became an...
(1963) became an international best-seller and remains one of his best known works. Following the novel's success, he left MI6 to become a full-time author.
In 1990, le Carré received the Helmerich Award which is presented annually by the Tulsa Library Trust
Tulsa City-County Library
The Tulsa City-County Library is the major public library system in Tulsa County, Oklahoma.-Overview:The library system serves those who live, work, go to school in, own land in, or pay property taxes on land in Tulsa County. There are 25 branches in the system: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,...
. He is a 2011 recipient of the Goethe Medal
Goethe Medal
The Goethe Medal, also known as the Goethe-Medaille, is a yearly prize given by the Goethe Institute honoring non-Germans for meritorious contributions in the spirit of the Institute. It is an official decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany....
.
Le Carré has since written several novels that have established him as one of the finest writers of espionage fiction in 20th century literature. In 2008, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
ranked le Carré 22nd on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers
British literature
British Literature refers to literature associated with the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. By far the largest part of British literature is written in the English language, but there are bodies of written works in Latin, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Cornish, Manx, Jèrriais,...
since 1945".
Early life and career
On 19 October 1931, David John Moore Cornwell was born to Richard Thomas Archibald (Ronnie) Cornwell (1906–75) and Olive (Glassy) Cornwell, in PoolePoole
Poole is a large coastal town and seaport in the county of Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester, and Bournemouth adjoins Poole to the east. The Borough of Poole was made a unitary authority in 1997, gaining administrative independence from Dorset County Council...
, Dorset, England, UK. He was the second son to the marriage, the first being Tony, two years his elder, now a retired advertising executive; his younger half-sister is the actress Charlotte Cornwell
Charlotte Cornwell
-Life and career:Cornwell was born in Marylebone, London, England, the daughter of Ronald Cornwell. She is the half-sister of spy novelist John le Carré . She describes him as "the best brother a girl could have"...
; and Rupert Cornwell, a former Independent newspaper Washington bureau chief, is a younger half-brother. John le Carré said he did not know his mother, who abandoned him when he was five years old, until their re-acquaintance when he was 21 years old. His relationship with his father was difficult, given that the man had been jailed for insurance fraud, was an associate of the Kray twins
Kray twins
Reginald "Reggie" Kray and his twin brother Ronald "Ronnie" Kray were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in London's East End during the 1950s and 1960s...
(among the foremost criminals in London) and was continually in debt. A biographer reports,
"His father, Ronnie, made and lost his fortune a number of times due to elaborate confidence tricks and schemes which landed him in prison on at least one occasion. This was one of the factors that led to le Carré's fascination with secrets."
Later, in the novel A Perfect Spy
A Perfect Spy
A Perfect Spy by John le Carré is a novel about the mental and moral dissolution of a secret agent.-Plot introduction:A Perfect Spy is the tale of Magnus Pym, a long-time spy for the United Kingdom. After attending his father's funeral, Pym mysteriously disappears...
(1986), father Ronnie featured as 'Rick Pym' the scheming con-man father of protagonist 'Magnus Pym'. When father Ronnie died in 1975, le Carré paid for a memorial funeral service but did not attend.
Cornwell's formal schooling began at St Andrew's Preparatory School
St Andrew's School, Pangbourne
St Andrew's School is an independent preparatory school in the hamlet of Buckhold, near Pangbourne, Berkshire, England.-History:The school was founded in 1934 as a boarding school for boys...
, near Pangbourne
Pangbourne
Pangbourne is a large village and civil parish on the River Thames in the English county of Berkshire. Pangbourne is the home of the independent school, Pangbourne College.-Location:...
, Berkshire, then continued at Sherborne School
Sherborne School
Sherborne School is a British independent school for boys, located in the town of Sherborne in north-west Dorset, England. It is one of the original member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference....
; he proved unhappy with the typically harsh English public school régime of the time, and disliked his disciplinarian housemaster, Thomas, and so withdrew. From 1948 to 1949, he studied foreign languages at the University of Bern in Switzerland. In 1950 he joined the Intelligence Corps of the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
garrisoned in Austria, working as a German language interrogator of people who crossed the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
to the West. In 1952, he returned to England to study at Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College...
, where he worked for MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
, spying upon far-left groups for information about possible Soviet agents
History of Soviet espionage
Coming to power as a clandestine organization, having been schooled in the secret police tactics of the Czarist Okhrana the new Soviet government of the Soviet Union tended to overestimate the degree to which the other European powers of the day, especially the United Kingdom, were plotting its...
.
When Ronnie declared bankruptcy in 1954, Cornwell quit Oxford to teach at a boys' preparatory school; however, a year later, he returned to Oxford and graduated with a First Class Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in 1956. He then taught French and German at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
for two years, afterwards becoming an MI5 officer in 1958; he ran agents, conducted interrogations, tapped telephone lines, and effected break-ins. Encouraged by Lord Clanmorris
John Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris
John Michael Ward Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris was an English novelist who published 17 thrillers, detective novels and spy novels...
(who pseudonymously wrote crime novels as 'John Bingham'), and whilst an active MI5 officer, Cornwell began writing Call for the Dead
Call for the Dead
Call for the Dead is John le Carré's first novel, published in 1961. It introduces George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in a story about East German spies inside Great Britain...
(1961), his first novel. Moreover, Lord Clanmorris was one of two inspirations – Vivian H. H. Green
Vivian H. H. Green
Vivian Hubert Howard Green was a Fellow and Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford, a priest, author, teacher, and historian....
being the other – for George Smiley
George Smiley
George Smiley is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Smiley is an intelligence officer working for MI6 , the British overseas intelligence agency...
, the master spy of the Circus. As a schoolboy, Cornwell first met Green when he was the Chaplain and Assistant Master at Sherborne School (1942–51), and then later as Rector at Lincoln College.
In 1960, Cornwell transferred to MI6, the foreign-intelligence service, and worked under 'Second Secretary' cover in the British Embassy at Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
; he later was transferred to Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
as a political consul
Consul (representative)
The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...
. There, he wrote the detective story
Detective Story
Detective Story is a film noir which tells the story of one day in the lives of the various people who populate a police detective squad. It features Kirk Douglas, Eleanor Parker, William Bendix, Cathy O'Donnell, Lee Grant, among others. The movie was adapted by Robert Wyler and Philip Yordan...
A Murder of Quality
A Murder of Quality
A Murder of Quality is the second novel by John le Carré. It follows George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in his only book set outside the espionage community.-Plot summary:...
(1962) and The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold , by John le Carré, is a British Cold War spy novel that became famous for its portrayal of Western espionage methods as being morally inconsistent with Western democracy and values. The novel received critical acclaim at the time of its publication and became an...
(1963), as John le Carré, a pseudonym required because Foreign Office officers were forbidden to publish in their own names; in the event, Cornwell left the service in 1964 to work full-time as the novelist 'John le Carré' – 'John the Square', in French. His intelligence officer career was ended by the betrayal of the covers of British agents to the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
by Kim Philby
Kim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union...
, a British double agent
Double agent
A double agent, commonly abbreviated referral of double secret agent, is a counterintelligence term used to designate an employee of a secret service or organization, whose primary aim is to spy on the target organization, but who in fact is a member of that same target organization oneself. They...
(of the Cambridge Five
Cambridge Five
The Cambridge Five was a ring of spies, recruited in part by Russian talent spotter Arnold Deutsch in the United Kingdom, who passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and at least into the early 1950s...
). Le Carré depicts and analyses Philby as 'Bill Haydon
Bill Haydon
Bill Haydon is a fictional character created by John le Carré, and is a major figure in le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.-Biography:...
', the upper-class traitor, code-named Gerald by the KGB, the mole George Smiley
George Smiley
George Smiley is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Smiley is an intelligence officer working for MI6 , the British overseas intelligence agency...
hunts in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a 1974 British spy novel by John le Carré, featuring George Smiley. Smiley is a middle-aged, taciturn, perspicacious intelligence expert in forced retirement. He is recalled to hunt down a Soviet mole in the "Circus", the highest echelon of the Secret Intelligence...
(1974); after publication, the novelist revealed that spymaster Smiley's model was Vivian H. H. Green
Vivian H. H. Green
Vivian Hubert Howard Green was a Fellow and Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford, a priest, author, teacher, and historian....
.
In 1964 Le Carré won the Somerset Maugham Award
Somerset Maugham Award
The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each May by the Society of Authors. It is awarded to whom they judge to be the best writer or writers under the age of thirty-five of a book published in the past year. The prize was instituted in 1947 by William Somerset Maugham and thus...
, established to enable British writers younger than thirty-five to enrich their writing by spending time abroad.
Personal life
In 1954, Cornwell married Alison Ann Veronica Sharp; they had three sons, Simon, Stephen and Timothy; they divorced in 1971. In 1972, Cornwell married Valérie Jane Eustace, a book editor with Hodder & StoughtonHodder & Stoughton
Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.-History:The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged fourteen, with Messrs Jackson and Walford, the official publisher for the Congregational Union...
. They had one son, Nicholas, who writes as Nick Harkaway
Nick Harkaway
Nick Harkaway is a novelist. He is the author of The Gone-Away World, a novel published in June 2008. He is the son of author John le Carré....
. Le Carré has resided in St Buryan
St Buryan
St Buryan is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom.The village of St Buryan is situated approximately five miles west of Penzance along the B3283 towards Land's End...
, Cornwall, UK, for more than forty years where he owns a mile of cliff close to Land's End.
Writing style
Stylistically, the first two novels – Call for the DeadCall for the Dead
Call for the Dead is John le Carré's first novel, published in 1961. It introduces George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in a story about East German spies inside Great Britain...
(1961) and A Murder of Quality
A Murder of Quality
A Murder of Quality is the second novel by John le Carré. It follows George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in his only book set outside the espionage community.-Plot summary:...
(1962) – are mystery fiction
Mystery fiction
Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...
wherein the hero George Smiley
George Smiley
George Smiley is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Smiley is an intelligence officer working for MI6 , the British overseas intelligence agency...
(of the SIS
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
, the Circus) resolves the riddles of the deaths investigated; the motives are more personal than political.
The spy novel œuvre of John le Carré stands in contrast to the physical action and moral certainty of the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
thriller established by Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
in the mid nineteen-fifties; the le Carré Cold War features unheroic political functionaries aware of the moral ambiguity of their work, and engaged in psychological more than physical drama. They experience little of the violence typically encountered in action thrillers, and have very little recourse to gadgets. Much of the conflict they are involved in is internal, rather than external and visible.
Unlike the manichean
Manichaeism
Manichaeism in Modern Persian Āyin e Māni; ) was one of the major Iranian Gnostic religions, originating in Sassanid Persia.Although most of the original writings of the founding prophet Mani have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived...
moral certainty of Fleming's British Secret Service adventures, le Carré's Circus spy stories are morally complex, and inform the reader of the fallibility of Western democracy and of the secret services protecting it, often implying East-West moral equivalence.
A Perfect Spy
A Perfect Spy
A Perfect Spy by John le Carré is a novel about the mental and moral dissolution of a secret agent.-Plot introduction:A Perfect Spy is the tale of Magnus Pym, a long-time spy for the United Kingdom. After attending his father's funeral, Pym mysteriously disappears...
(1986), chronicling the boyhood moral education of Magnus Pym, as it leads to his becoming a spy, is the author's most autobiographic espionage novel – especially the boy's very close relationship with his con man
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
father. Biographer Lynndianne Beene describes the novelist's own father, Richard Cornwell, as 'an epic con man of little education, immense charm, extravagant tastes, but no social values'; le Carré reflected that 'writing A Perfect Spy is probably what a very wise shrink would have advised'.
Most of le Carré's novels are spy stories usually occurring during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
(1945–91); the notable exception is The Naïve and Sentimental Lover
The Naïve and Sentimental Lover
The Naïve and Sentimental Lover is John le Carré's first novel to avoid the subject of espionage. The novel has autobiographical elements, as it is based on the author's relationship with James and Susan Kennaway following the breakdown of le Carré's first marriage....
(1971), an autobiographical, stylistically uneven, mainstream novel of a man's post-marital existential crisis. Another diversion from East-West conflict is The Little Drummer Girl
The Little Drummer Girl
The Little Drummer Girl is a spy novel by John le Carré, published in 1983. The story follows the manipulations of Martin Kurtz, an Israeli spymaster who is trying to kill a Palestinian terrorist code-named 'Khalil', who is bombing Jewish-related targets in Europe, particularly Germany, and the...
, dipping into the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
With the fall of the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
in 1989, le Carré's œuvre shifted to portrayal of the new multilateral world. For example The Night Manager
The Night Manager
The Night Manager is an espionage/detective novel by John le Carré, published in 1993. It is his first post-Cold War novel, detailing an undercover operation to nab an international criminal.-Plot summary:...
, his first completely post-Cold-War novel, deals with drug and arms smuggling in the murky world of Latin America drug lords, shady Caribbean banking entities, and look-the-other-way western officials.
As a journalist, he wrote The Unbearable Peace (1991), a non-fiction account of Brigadier Jean-Louis Jeanmaire
Jean-Louis Jeanmaire
Jean-Louis Jeanmaire was a brigadier in the Swiss army who passed highly classified, but rather insensitive, Swiss military secrets to the Soviet Union from 1962 up until his retirement at 65 in 1975...
(1911–92), the Swiss Army officer who spied for the USSR from 1962 until 1975. In 2009, he donated the short story 'The King Who Never Spoke' to the Oxfam 'Ox-Tales
Ox-Tales
Ox-Tales refers to four anthologies of short stories written by 38 of the UK's best known authors. All the authors donated their stories to Oxfam...
' project, which included it in the project's Fire volume.
Politics
In January 2003 The TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
published le Carré's article "The United States Has Gone Mad", which condemned the approaching Iraq War. He observed within this essay, "How Bush and his junta succeeded in deflecting America's anger, from Bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
to Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
, is one of the great public relations conjuring tricks of history."
In 2006, he contributed the above article to a volume of political essays entitled "Not One More Death." The book is highly critical of the war in Iraq. Le Carré's contribution was entitled "Art, truth and politics". Other contributors include Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
, Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
, Michel Faber
Michel Faber
Michel Faber is a Dutch-born writer of fiction. He writes in English.Faber was born in The Hague, Netherlands. He and his parents emigrated to Australia in 1967...
, Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
, and Haifa Zangana
Haifa Zangana
Haifa Zangana is an Iraqi novelist, author, artist, and political activist. She is most notably known for writing Women on a Journey: Between Baghdad and London. Haifa grew up in Baghdad and graduated from Baghdad University and the School of pharmacy in 1974...
.
He is the author of a testimonial in The Future of the NHS
The Future of the NHS
The Future of the NHS is a book published by xpl Publishing in 2006 . It is edited by Dr Michelle Tempest and brings together forty-four leading experts in the fields of health care, politics and policy making...
(2006) (ISBN 1858113695) edited by Dr. Michelle Tempest
Michelle Tempest
Dr. Michelle Tempest is a British psychiatrist and author. In 2010 she was the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for North West Durham.-Academic background:...
.
Last television interviews
On Monday 13 September 2010 he was interviewed on Channel 4 NewsChannel 4 News
Channel 4 News is the news division of British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since the broadcaster's launch in 1982.-Channel 4 News:...
by journalist Jon Snow
Jon Snow
Jon Snow is an English journalist and presenter, currently employed by ITN. He is best known for presenting Channel 4 News.He was Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University from 2001 to 2008.-Early life:...
at his house in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
. Conversation involved a few topics: his writing career generally and processes adopted for writing – specifically about his current book, Our Kind of Traitor
Our Kind of Traitor
Our Kind of Traitor is a 2010 espionage novel by the British novelist John le Carré about a Russian money launderer seeking to defect to the UK after a close friend of his had been killed by the new leadership of his own criminal brotherhood.- Plot summary :...
, involving Russia and its current global influences, financially and politically; his SIS
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
career, reasoning why, both personally and more generally, one did such a job then, as compared to now; and how the fight against communism then has now conversely moved to the hugely negative effects of certain aspects of excessive capitalism.
During the interview he made it clear that it would be his last television interview ever. While reticent as to his exact reasons, those he was willing to cite were that of slight self-loathing (which he considered most people feel), along with a distaste for showing off (he felt that writing necessarily involved a lot of this anyway) and to breaching what he felt was the necessarily singular nature of the writer's work. He was also wary of wasting writing time and dissipating his talent in social success, having seen this happen to many talented writers, to the detriment of their later work. A week after this purportedly final television appearance, however, le Carré was interviewed on television in the United States, on the programme Democracy Now!
Democracy Now!
Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
. Cornwell's explanation aired on Democracy Now!
Democracy Now!
Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
on Monday 11 October 2010.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, we were interested because Channel 4 just said "the last interview" with John le Carré, and yet here we are. Why did you change your mind?
JOHN LE CARRÉ: I didn’t change my mind. The full text with Channel 4 was that that was my last interview in the UK. And this is the last book about which I intend to give interviews. That isn’t because I’m in any sense retiring. I’ve found that, actually, I’ve said everything I really want to say, outside my books. I would just like—I’m in wonderful shape. I’m entering my eightieth year. I just want to devote myself entirely to writing and not to this particular art form of conversation.
Le Carré was interviewed on the 27 February 2011 episode of the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
program Sunday Morning
Sunday Morning
Sunday Morning may refer to:* "Sunday Morning" , a Canadian radio program formerly aired on CBC Radio One* CBS News Sunday Morning, a television news program on CBS in the United States...
, and once again announced that it would be the last interview he would grant. His longest interview may have been that recorded in 2010 by Canadian radio broadcaster Eleanor Wachtel,
later a podcast at CBC.
Best novels list
In an interview of John le Carré, broadcast 5 October 2008 on BBC FourBBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
, Mark Lawson asked him to name a Best of le Carré list of books; the novelist answered:
- The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
- The Tailor of Panama
- The Constant Gardener
Adaptations
Film- In 1965, Martin RittMartin RittMartin Ritt was an American director, actor, and playwright who worked in both film and theater. He was born in New York City.-Early career and influences:...
directed the first film adaptation of a John le Carré novel, The Spy Who Came in from the ColdThe Spy Who Came in from the Cold (film)The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a 1965 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by John le Carré. It was adapted by Paul Dehn and Guy Trosper. The film stars Richard Burton as Alec Leamas, along with Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner, Peter van Eyck, Sam Wanamaker, Rupert Davies and Cyril Cusack...
, with Richard BurtonRichard BurtonRichard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
as protagonist Alec Leamas. - In 1966, Sidney LumetSidney LumetSidney Lumet was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict...
directed The Deadly AffairThe Deadly AffairThe Deadly Affair is a 1966 British espionage–thriller film, based on John le Carré's first novel Call for the Dead. The film stars James Mason, Harry Andrews, Simone Signoret and Maximilian Schell and was directed by Sidney Lumet from a script by Paul Dehn. In it George Smiley, the central...
, an adaptation of Call for the DeadCall for the DeadCall for the Dead is John le Carré's first novel, published in 1961. It introduces George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in a story about East German spies inside Great Britain...
, with James MasonJames MasonJames Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
as Charles Dobbs (George Smiley in the novel). - In 1969, Frank Pierson directed The Looking Glass War, with Anthony HopkinsAnthony HopkinsSir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
as Avery, Christopher JonesChristopher Jones (actor)William "Billy" Frank Jones, better known as Christopher Jones, is an American character actor, born August 18, 1941 in Jackson, Tennessee....
as Leiser and Sir Ralph RichardsonRalph RichardsonSir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
as LeClerc. - In 1984, George Roy HillGeorge Roy HillGeorge Roy Hill was an American film director. He is most noted for directing such films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, which both starred the acting duo Paul Newman and Robert Redford...
directed The Little Drummer GirlThe Little Drummer Girl (film)The Little Drummer Girl is a 1984 American spy film directed by George Roy Hill and adapted from the 1983 novel The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carré. It starred Diane Keaton, Yorgo Voyagis, Klaus Kinski and Thorley Walters....
, with Diane KeatonDiane KeatonDiane Keaton is an American film actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970...
as Charlie. - In 1990, Fred Schepisi directed The Russia HouseThe Russia House (film)The Russia House is an American spy drama, based on the novel of the same name by John le Carré. It was directed by Fred Schepisi, and starred Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer, with Roy Scheider, James Fox, John Mahoney, and Klaus Maria Brandauer in supporting roles.It was filmed on location in...
, with Sean ConnerySean ConnerySir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
as Barley Blair. - In 2001, John BoormanJohn BoormanJohn Boorman is a British filmmaker who is a long time resident of Ireland and is best known for his feature films such as Point Blank, Deliverance, Zardoz, Excalibur, The Emerald Forest, Hope and Glory, The General and The Tailor of Panama.-Early life:Boorman was born in Shepperton, Surrey,...
directed The Tailor of PanamaThe Tailor of PanamaThe Tailor of Panama is a 2001 American film based on the 1996 spy novel of the same name by John le Carré, which was inspired by Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana...
, with Pierce BrosnanPierce BrosnanPierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
as Andy Osnard, a disgraced spy. - In 2005, Fernando MeirellesFernando MeirellesFernando Ferreira Meirelles is a Brazilian film director, producer and screenwriter.He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director in 2004 for his work in the Brazilian film City of God, released in 2002 in Brazil and in 2003 in the U.S. by Miramax Films...
directed The Constant GardenerThe Constant Gardener (film)The Constant Gardener is a 2005 drama film directed by Fernando Meirelles. The screenplay by Jeffrey Caine is based on the John le Carré novel of the same name. It tells the story of Justin Quayle, a man who seeks to find the motivating forces behind his wife's murder.The film stars Ralph Fiennes,...
, with Ralph FiennesRalph FiennesRalph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor and film director. He has appeared in such films as The English Patient, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, The Duchess and Schindler's List....
as Justin Quayle, set in the slumSlumA slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
s in KiberaKiberaKibera is a division of Nairobi Area, Kenya, and neighbourhood of the city of Nairobi, located from the city centre. Kibera is the largest slum in Nairobi, and the second largest urban slum in Africa...
and LoiyangalaniLoiyangalaniLoiyangalani is a small town located on the southeastern coast of Lake Turkana in Kenya. The town has 1000 inhabitants . Loiyangalani means "a place of many trees" in the native Samburu tongue. It is home to Turkana people and was founded near a freshwater spring in the 1960s where the El Molo...
, Kenya. The poverty so affected the film crew that they established the Constant Gardener TrustConstant Gardener TrustThe Constant Gardener Trust was established in 2004 soon after the filming of The Constant Gardener near Nairobi, Kenya. On location in the slums of Kibera and Loiyangalani, the situation of the inhabitants affected the crew so much it was decided to set up the Trust in order to give thanks to the...
to provide basic education to those areas. John le Carré is a patron of the charity. - In 2011 Tomas AlfredsonTomas AlfredsonTomas Alfredson is a Swedish film director, best known internationally for directing the 2008 vampire film Let the Right One In...
directed Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, starring Gary OldmanGary OldmanGary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
as George Smiley. The film was released on the 5th September 2011 at the Venice Film FestivalVenice Film FestivalThe Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
in the UK on 16 September 2011.
Television
- In 1979, the BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
adapted Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, SpyTinker, Tailor, Soldier, SpyTinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a 1974 British spy novel by John le Carré, featuring George Smiley. Smiley is a middle-aged, taciturn, perspicacious intelligence expert in forced retirement. He is recalled to hunt down a Soviet mole in the "Circus", the highest echelon of the Secret Intelligence...
to television, with Alec GuinnessAlec GuinnessSir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
as George Smiley. Two years later, in 1981, he reprised the role in Smiley's PeopleSmiley's PeopleSmiley's People is a spy novel by John le Carré, published in 1979. Featuring British master-spy George Smiley, it is the third and final novel of the "Karla Trilogy", following Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy...
. The BBC did not adapt The Honourable SchoolboyThe Honourable SchoolboyThe Honourable Schoolboy is a spy novel by John le Carré. George Smiley tries to reconstruct an intelligence service and to run a successful offensive espionage operation to save the service from falling to the "war hawks" in government...
, featuring Jerry Westerby (Joss AcklandJoss AcklandSidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland CBE , known as Joss Ackland, is an English actor who has appeared in more than 130 films and numerous television roles.-Early life:...
in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), because production in East Asia would have cost too much. - In 1987, Peter Smith directed the television adaptation of A Perfect SpyA Perfect Spy (TV series)A Perfect Spy is a BBC miniseries adaptation of John le Carré's spy novel of the same name. It follows the career of the British MI6 spy Magnus Pym from his early days as a schoolboy to his eventual disappearance as a suspected agent of the Czech secret service.-Episode one:As a young boy Magnus...
(BBC), with Peter EganPeter EganPeter Egan is a British actor known for playing smooth neighbour Paul Ryman in 1980s sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles. He is married to retired actress Myra Frances.-Early life:...
as Magnus Pym, and Ray McAnallyRay McAnallyRay McAnally was an Irish actor famous for his performances in films such as The Mission, My Left Foot, and A Very British Coup.-Background:...
as Rick. - In 1991, Gavin MillarGavin MillarGavin Millar is a Scottish film director, critic and television presenter.Millar's early career was as a film critic, most notably for The Listener from 1970 to 1984. He also contributed to Sight and Sound and The London Review of Books. With the film director Karel Reisz, he co-authored The...
directed A Murder of QualityA Murder of QualityA Murder of Quality is the second novel by John le Carré. It follows George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in his only book set outside the espionage community.-Plot summary:...
(Thames Television), with Denholm ElliottDenholm ElliottDenholm Mitchell Elliott, CBE was an English film, television and theatre actor with over 120 film and television credits...
as George Smiley, and Joss AcklandJoss AcklandSidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland CBE , known as Joss Ackland, is an English actor who has appeared in more than 130 films and numerous television roles.-Early life:...
as Terence Fielding.
Radio
- The 1994 BBC radio adaptation of The Russia House features Tom BakerTom BakerThomas Stewart "Tom" Baker is a British actor. He is best known for playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction television series Doctor Who, a role he played from 1974 to 1981.-Early life:...
as Barley Blair. - The Complete Smiley is an eight radio-play series, based upon the novels featuring George Smiley, that commenced broadcast on 23 May 2009 on BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
, beginning with Call for the Dead, with Simon Russell BealeSimon Russell BealeSimon Russell Beale, CBE is an English actor. He has been described by The Independent as "the greatest stage actor of his generation."-Early years:...
as George Smiley, and concluding with The Secret Pilgrim, in June 2010 .
Novels
- Call for the DeadCall for the DeadCall for the Dead is John le Carré's first novel, published in 1961. It introduces George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in a story about East German spies inside Great Britain...
(1961) - A Murder of QualityA Murder of QualityA Murder of Quality is the second novel by John le Carré. It follows George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in his only book set outside the espionage community.-Plot summary:...
(1962) - The Spy Who Came in from the ColdThe Spy Who Came in from the ColdThe Spy Who Came in from the Cold , by John le Carré, is a British Cold War spy novel that became famous for its portrayal of Western espionage methods as being morally inconsistent with Western democracy and values. The novel received critical acclaim at the time of its publication and became an...
(1963) (Edgar AwardEdgar AwardThe Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
1965, Best Novel) - The Looking Glass War (1965)
- A Small Town in GermanyA Small Town in GermanyA Small Town In Germany is an espionage thriller by John le Carré, set against a background of concern that former Nazis were returning to positions of power in West Germany.-Plot introduction:...
(1968) - The Naïve and Sentimental LoverThe Naïve and Sentimental LoverThe Naïve and Sentimental Lover is John le Carré's first novel to avoid the subject of espionage. The novel has autobiographical elements, as it is based on the author's relationship with James and Susan Kennaway following the breakdown of le Carré's first marriage....
(1971) - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, SpyTinker, Tailor, Soldier, SpyTinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a 1974 British spy novel by John le Carré, featuring George Smiley. Smiley is a middle-aged, taciturn, perspicacious intelligence expert in forced retirement. He is recalled to hunt down a Soviet mole in the "Circus", the highest echelon of the Secret Intelligence...
(1974) - The Honourable SchoolboyThe Honourable SchoolboyThe Honourable Schoolboy is a spy novel by John le Carré. George Smiley tries to reconstruct an intelligence service and to run a successful offensive espionage operation to save the service from falling to the "war hawks" in government...
(1977) - Smiley's PeopleSmiley's PeopleSmiley's People is a spy novel by John le Carré, published in 1979. Featuring British master-spy George Smiley, it is the third and final novel of the "Karla Trilogy", following Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy...
(1979) - The Little Drummer GirlThe Little Drummer GirlThe Little Drummer Girl is a spy novel by John le Carré, published in 1983. The story follows the manipulations of Martin Kurtz, an Israeli spymaster who is trying to kill a Palestinian terrorist code-named 'Khalil', who is bombing Jewish-related targets in Europe, particularly Germany, and the...
(1983) - A Perfect SpyA Perfect SpyA Perfect Spy by John le Carré is a novel about the mental and moral dissolution of a secret agent.-Plot introduction:A Perfect Spy is the tale of Magnus Pym, a long-time spy for the United Kingdom. After attending his father's funeral, Pym mysteriously disappears...
(1986) - The Russia HouseThe Russia HouseThe Russia House is a novel by John le Carré published in 1989. The title refers to the nickname given to the portion of the British Secret Intelligence Service that was devoted to spying on the Soviet Union. A film based on the novel was released in 1990, starring Sean Connery and Michelle...
(1989) - The Secret PilgrimThe Secret PilgrimThe Secret Pilgrim is a 1990 novel, set within the frame narrative of a series of lectures by John le Carré's George Smiley, famous only within the 'Circus'. The memoirs, narrated by Ned, a former pupil of Smiley's, are, except for the last, triggered by tangential Smiley comments in lectures given...
(1990) - The Night ManagerThe Night ManagerThe Night Manager is an espionage/detective novel by John le Carré, published in 1993. It is his first post-Cold War novel, detailing an undercover operation to nab an international criminal.-Plot summary:...
(1993) - Our GameOur GameOur Game is a novel by John le Carré published in 1995. The title refers to Winchester College Football, as the two main characters were at Winchester long before the setting of the novel.-Plot summary:The disappearance of Dr...
(1995) - The Tailor of PanamaThe Tailor of PanamaThe Tailor of Panama is a 2001 American film based on the 1996 spy novel of the same name by John le Carré, which was inspired by Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana...
(1996) - Single & SingleSingle & SingleSingle and Single is a novel by John le Carré. It is the story of a British Customs and Excise officer on the trail of elusive fraudster Tiger Single...
(1999) - The Constant GardenerThe Constant GardenerThe Constant Gardener is a 2001 novel by John le Carré. It tells the story of Justin Quayle, a British diplomat whose activist wife is murdered...
(2001) - Absolute FriendsAbsolute FriendsAbsolute Friends is an espionage novel by John le Carré published in December 2003.-Plot summary:The book tells the story of Ted Mundy, a Pakistani-born Briton who as a student becomes proficient in the German language. He joins a 1960's era student protest group in West Berlin and becomes a...
(2003) - The Mission SongThe Mission SongThe Mission Song is a thriller/espionage novel by John le Carré, published in October 2006. Set against the background of the chaotic East Congo, the story involves the planning of a Western-backed coup in the province of Kivu, told from the worm's-eye view of the hapless interpreter...
(2006) - A Most Wanted ManA Most Wanted ManA Most Wanted Man is a thriller/espionage novel by John le Carré published in October 2008 by Scribner in the United States and Hodder & Stoughton in the United Kingdom....
(2008) - Our Kind of TraitorOur Kind of TraitorOur Kind of Traitor is a 2010 espionage novel by the British novelist John le Carré about a Russian money launderer seeking to defect to the UK after a close friend of his had been killed by the new leadership of his own criminal brotherhood.- Plot summary :...
(2010)
Non-fiction
- The Good Soldier (1991) collected in Granta 35: The Unbearable PeaceGrantaGranta is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centers on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real." In 2007, The Observer stated, "In its blend of...
- The United States Has Gone Mad (2003) collected in Not One More Death (2006)
Short stories
- Dare I Weep, Dare I Mourn? (1967) published in the Saturday Evening Post 28 January 1967.
- What Ritual is Being Observed Tonight? (1968) published in the Saturday Evening Post 2 November 1968.
- The Writer and The Horse (1968) published in The Savile Club Centenary Magazine and later The Argosy (& The Saturday Review under the title A Writer and A Gentleman.)
- The King Who Never Spoke (2009) published in Ox-TalesOx-TalesOx-Tales refers to four anthologies of short stories written by 38 of the UK's best known authors. All the authors donated their stories to Oxfam...
: Fire 2 July 2009.
Omnibus
- The Incongruous SpyThe Incongruous SpyThe Incongruous Spy , by John le Carré, is an omnibus edition of the two novels which introduce Carré's most famous character, George Smiley. The Incongruous Spy includes:* Call for the Dead - * A Murder of Quality -...
(1964) (containing Call for the Dead and A Murder of Quality) - The Quest for KarlaThe Quest for KarlaSmiley Versus Karla , by John le Carré, published in the US as The Quest for Karla, is an omnibus edition of three novels concerning George Smiley's fight against Karla, his counterpart in Moscow Centre . The "Karla Trilogy" includes:* Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - * The Honourable Schoolboy - *...
(1982) (containing Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People) - John Le Carré: Three Complete Novels (1995) (containing Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People)
Screenplays
- End of the Line (1970) broadcast 29 June 1970
- A Murder of Quality (1991)
- The Tailor of Panama (2001) with John BoormanJohn BoormanJohn Boorman is a British filmmaker who is a long time resident of Ireland and is best known for his feature films such as Point Blank, Deliverance, Zardoz, Excalibur, The Emerald Forest, Hope and Glory, The General and The Tailor of Panama.-Early life:Boorman was born in Shepperton, Surrey,...
and Andrew DaviesAndrew Davies (writer)Andrew Wynford Davies is a British author and screenwriter. He was made a Fellow of BAFTA in 2002.-Education and early career:...
Actor
- The Little Drummer Girl (1984, as David Cornwell)
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011, as John le Carré)
External links
- 1966 BBC TV interview with Malcolm Muggeridge
- Transcript of interview with David Cornwell by Ramona KovalRamona KovalRamona Koval is an Australian broadcaster, writer and journalist.Her parents were Yiddish-speaking survivors of the Holocaust who arrived in Melbourne from Poland in 1950....
, The Book ShowThe Book ShowThe Book Show is an Australian ABC radio program for the discussion of everything relating to the written word. It is broadcast live around Australia on Radio National with a daily weekday morning show which is then replayed nightly and also has a Sunday evening show. The show is hosted by Ramona...
, ABC Radio National, on A Most Wanted Man, 19 November 2008 - Interview, People Magazine, issue 13 September 1993
- "John le Carré's allegiances": a review in the TLS by Michael Saler, September 2006
- BBC George Smiley site
- The Mission Song Reviews at Metacritic.com
- John le Carré biography on Books and Writers
- 1989 NPR Interview of le Carré
- "Colorful Crime Boss Inspires Le Carre's Traitor", NPR story, October 8, 2010.
- 1964 Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Interview of le Carré
- John le Carré on the Iraq War, Corporate Power, and the Exploitation of Africa – video interview by Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
- Le Carré interviewed on CBC RadioCBC Radio OneCBC Radio One is the English language news and information radio network of the publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial free and offers both local and national programming...
's Writers and CompanyWriters and CompanyWriters & Company is a Canadian radio show that airs Sunday afternoons on CBC Radio One. Hosted by Eleanor Wachtel, the program broadcasts interviews with Canadian and international writers....
(2010): Part 1 Part 2