John le Carré obituary Eric Homberger
John le Carré, who has died aged 89 of pneumonia, raised the spy novel to a new level of seriousness and respect.
He was in his late 20s when he began to write fiction – in longhand, in small red pocket notebooks, on his daily train journey between his home in Buckinghamshire and his day job with MI5, the counter-intelligence service, in London. After the publication of two neatly crafted novels, Call for the Dead (1961) and A Murder of Quality (1962), which received measured reviews and modest sales, he hit the big time with The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963).
Smiley vs Bond: how different were John le Carré and Ian Fleming s creations, really?
One looks like a movie star – the other a frog. But are James Bond and George Smiley more alike than we think?
14 December 2020 • 6:10pm
Cut from the same cloth? Gary Oldman as Smiley and Sean Connery as Bond
Credit: Film Stills/Bettmann Archive
A spy and his master walk into a bar. “The name’s Bond, James Bond, and I’ll have a martini,” says the first. “What about you, George?” His plump, frog-like companion considers the choices, wiping his thick glasses with the end of his tie. “Just tea, please” he says finally. “And James? Do stop telling everyone your name.”