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John le Carré (1931-2020): The former agent who leaves us a literary legacy of spies
The legendary creator of Smiley died on Saturday at the age of 89. John Le Carré, whose real name was David Cornwall, in January 2020. | TT News Agency / Reuters
He was 89, so a corner of the treasonous heart expected it would happen some day soon. But one had hoped that this extraordinary, vile and tragic year would not claim John le Carré too.
In the Circus of his fans – and they are more numerous than you can imagine – I would be a mere lamplighter with occasional pretense to being a scalphunter. Therefore I shall not speculate about why he was denied the usual accoutrements of literary greatness. A Booker, if not the Big One. These are discussions I shall leave to the Lacons. But this loss is grievous, and we shall speak of the man and the world he created. Just that, for now.
14 December 2020
John le Carré, who has died at the age of 89, was one of Britain s greatest writers. In 2016, as his memoir The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life was published, BRIAN MORTON examined le Carré s life, work and philosophy alongside highlights from BBC interviews.
John le Carré in 1964 (Getty Images)
From his years serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War, to a career as a writer that took him from war-torn Cambodia to Beirut, and Russia before and after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the fiction of David Cornwell - better known as John le Carré - has always got to the heart of modern times.