PanamaTimes

Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Spy Novelist John Le Carré Dies At 89

Spy Novelist John Le Carré Dies At 89

The bestselling author of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy died Saturday at age 89; his work was informed by his own years as a spy during the Cold War.
John le Carré, the British spy novelist behind dozens of works including The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, has died at 89 in Cornwall, England.

Le Carré, who was born David Cornwell, died of pneumonia on the evening of Dec. 12, according to a statement from his publisher.

"John le Carré was an undisputed giant of English literature. He defined the Cold War era and fearlessly spoke truth to power in the decades that followed," said Jonny Geller, CEO of The Curtis Brown Group and le Carré's agent. "I have lost a mentor, an inspiration and most important, a friend. We will not see his like again."

Le Carré worked as a British intelligence officer himself before penning the espionage novels that dominated global bestseller lists for decades — and led to multiple movie and TV adaptations.

He wrote his first three books while working for Britain's MI5 and MI6, and became a full-time author after catapulting onto the global scene with the publication of his third novel, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, in 1963.

"From the day my novel was published, I realised that now and for ever more I was to be branded as the spy turned writer, rather than as a writer who, like scores of his kind, had done a stint in the secret world, and written about it," le Carré wrote in a postscript to the 50th anniversary edition of the book. "The novel's merit, then — or its offence, depending on where you stood — was not that it was authentic, but that it was credible."

Le Carré himself seemed shocked by how credible people found the book. Writing in the Guardian in 2013, he recalled that the British government had vetted the book and approved it as "sheer fiction from start to finish," and therefore not a security breach.

"This was not, however, the view taken by the world's press," he wrote, "which with one voice decided that the book was not merely authentic but some kind of revelatory Message From The Other Side, leaving me with nothing to do but sit tight and watch, in a kind of frozen awe, as it climbed the bestseller list and stuck there, while pundit after pundit heralded it as the real thing." One of those was another novelist, Graham Greene, who called it "the best spy story I have ever read."

Perhaps what made le Carré's characters so memorable was their very ordinariness — George Smiley, his best-known creation, was famously short, dumpy, badly dressed, and constantly fretting that his wife was unfaithful. He wasn't James Bond, battling clearly defined bad guys with flair, sexy gadgets and well-placed quips. No, Smiley was brilliant, but slow and methodical, and well aware that he was operating in shades of grey.

That reflects Le Carré's own experience as a spy. As he told Fresh Air's Terry Gross in 2017, "Back then, we had a clear philosophy which we thought we were protecting, and it was a notion of the West — it was a notion of individual freedom, of inclusiveness, of tolerance. All of that we called anti-communism. That was really a broad brush, because there were many decent people who lived in communist territories who weren't as bad as one might suppose."

The other formative figure in le Carré's life was his father, a flamboyant con man and criminal who was in and out of jail, leaving his son to be raised in boarding schools (his mother left the family when le Carré was five years old.) "He filled my head with a great lot of truthless material, which I found it necessary to check out as a child, with time," he told Terry Gross. "Yes, in that sense, these were the early makings of a spy."

Le Carré wrote 25 novels and one memoir, and sold more than 60 million copies of his work worldwide. His last novel, Agent Running in the Field, was published in October 2019.

In early 2020, he won the Olof Palme Prize for what organizers called his "engaging and humanistic opinion making in literary form regarding the freedom of the individual and the fundamental issues of mankind." He donated the $100,000 prize to Médecins Sans Frontières.

In that 2017 interview, Terry Gross asked le Carré if he looked back on his life as being "extraordinarily interesting."

"I do sometimes," he answered. "I'm scared of being a bore about it, but it does seem to be a wonderful life in retrospect, or an extraordinarily varied one."

Le Carré is survived by his wife, four sons, 14 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Newsletter

Related Articles

PanamaTimes
0:00
0:00
Close
Apple warns against drying iPhones with rice
In a recent High Court hearing, the U.S. argued that Julian Assange endangered lives by releasing classified information.
Global Law Enforcement Dismantles Lockbit Ransomware Operation
Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has died at the Arctic prison colony
The President of Argentina Javier Mile does not fly private, he flies commercial, with the citizens he represents. And they LOVE him for it.
Bitcoin Reaches $50,000 for First Time in Over Two Years
Belo Horizonte: Brazil's Rising Carnival Hotspot for 2024
In El Salvador, the 'Trump of Latin America' stuns the world with a speech slamming woke policing after winning a landslide election
Tucker’s interview with Putin is over 50M views on X within the first 5 hours.
Finnish Airline, Finnair, is voluntarily weighing passengers to better estimate flight cargo weight
President Nayib Bukele has proudly announced El Salvador's remarkable achievement of becoming the safest nation in the Western Hemisphere.
Former Chilean President Sebastian Piñera Dies in Helicopter Crash
This farmer seems to understand science a bit more than the event organizer, Klaus Schwab.
Facebook turns 20: From Mark Zuckerberg's dormitory to a $1trn company
The Coolest Dictator in the World" on the Path to Victory in El Salvador
Macron, France and fake news
Indian-Origin Man 'King' Arrested For Smuggling $16 Million Drugs Into US
Can someone teach Americans that not every person with slanted eyes is Chinese?
Europe's Farmers Feeding the People, Protesting Against Politicians Who Do Nothing for Their Country and Serve Only Themselves at Taxpayers' Expense
Paris Restaurant That Inspired 'Ratatouille' Loses $1.6 Million Worth Of Wine
Brazilian Police Investigate Bolsonaro's Son for Alleged Illegal Spying
Police in Brazil Raid Residence of Bolsonaro Associate Over Allegations of Illegal Spying
Border Dispute Escalates as Texas Governor Vows Increased Razor Wire
OpenAI Enhances ChatGPT-4 Model, Potentially Addressing AI "Laziness" Issue
The NSA finally acknowledges spying on Americans by acquiring sensitive data
Report Reveals Toxic Telegram Group Generating X-Rated AI-Generated Fake Images of Taylor Swift
US Border Patrol States 'No Plans' to Remove Razor Wire Installed in Texas
Bitcoin Experiences Approximately 20% Decline in Value
Klaus Schwab recently appointed himself as the Earth's "trustee of the future."
DeSantis Drops Out, Endorses Trump.
Nikki Haley said former President Trump is "just not at the same level" of mental fitness as he was while president in 2016.
Residents of a southern Mexican town set the government palace on fire in response to the police killing of a young man
Samsung Launches AI-Driven Galaxy S24, Ushering in New Smartphone Era
Judge Questions SEC's Regulatory Overreach in Coinbase Lawsuit
The Ecuador prosecutor who was investigating the television studio attack, has been assassinated.
Is artificial intelligence the solution to cyber security threats?
Vivek Ramaswamy suspends his US election campaign and endorses Trump.
Viral Satire: A Staged Satirical Clip Mistaken as Real Footage from the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos
The AI Revolution in the Workforce: CEOs at Davos Predict Major Job Cuts in 2024
Ecuador Reports 178 Hostages in Prison Gang Standoff
The Startling Cuban Espionage Case That Has Rattled the US Government
Two Armed Men in Ecuador, Dressed as Batman and The Joker Storm the Streets.
Armed Gang Raids Ecuadorian TV Station Following State of Emergency Declaration
Anti-Democratic Canada: Journalist Arrested for Questioning Canadian Finance Minister on Support of Terrorist Group
Ecuador's 'Most-Wanted' Criminal Vanishes from Prison
Mexican Cartel Supplied Wi-Fi to Locals Under Threat of Fatal Consequences for Non-Compliance
Border Surge Leads to Over 11,000 Migrants Waiting in Northern Mexico
Outsider Candidates Triumph in Latin American Elections
As Argentina Goes to the Polls, Will the Proposal to Replace the Peso with the Dollar Secure Votes?
Fatal Shark Attack Claims Life of Boston Woman Paddleboarding Near Bahamas Resort, According to Police
×