From the NS Archive: The secrets of John le Carré 5 February 1999: John le Carré: A literary barbarian? Or a writer to whom future generations will turn for insights into our times?
In 1999, Jason Cowley, now the editor of the New Statesman, wrote this profile of John le Carré. The espionage novelist, he said, was a figure of fascination in the literary world, not least because he polarised the debate between the “literary” and the “genre” novel. But, thought Cowley, his importance extended far beyond that; the secretive writer, who purposely withdrew from the metropolitan book world and the publicity duties that were part of being an author, was a sort of seer. His understanding of the Cold War and the ways it manifested the mentalities of the combatants was more than the stuff of fiction; it was a reflection of the great issue of the time. It also reflected Britain as it was, not as how it wanted to be: le Carré, Cowley said, possessed an “intricate understandi
The wrong side won: Remembering John le Carré
Adrian Scottow/Flickr
This ambiguous conclusion is attributed to le Carré’s favourite character, George Smiley, in his novel
The Secret Pilgrim, but it is an unmistakable theme of most of le Carré’s post-Cold War novels. Le Carré’s death this week came after decades of disillusionment with the new world order and his increasing disenchantment with the behaviour of the Cold War’s victors.
Not that le Carré was rooting for the Soviet bloc – “the right side lost”, after all – but he became convinced that the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the associated demise of anti-communism, left the West without a coherent ideology.
BBC News
John le Carré was the pseudonym of the author David Cornwell, judged by many to be the master of the spy novel.
Meticulously researched, and elegantly written, many of his books reached a wider audience through TV and film adaptations.
Le Carré stripped away the glamour and romance that were a feature of the James Bond novels and instead examined the real dark and seedy life of the professional spy.
In the twilight world of le Carré s characters the distinction between good and bad, right and wrong was never that clear cut.
David John Moore Cornwell was born on 19 Oct 1931 in Poole, Dorset.
John le Carré
The former intelligence agent is known for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and The Russia House.
John le Carré, the British intelligence agent turned enigmatic author of such iconic espionage novels as
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, has died. He was 89.
Le Carré died Saturday evening in Cornwall, England, after a short illness that was not COVID-19 related, his literary agent, Jonny Geller of The Curtis Brown Group, reported. I represented [le Carré] for almost 15 years, Geller said. I have lost a mentor, an inspiration and most importantly, a friend. We will not see his like again.