Contents
John le Carré
Writing morally complicated spy novels, including The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold · Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
- Born
- 19 October 1931
- Birthplace
- Poole, England
- Died
- 12 December 2020
More people
John le Carré
John le Carré drew on intelligence work to make espionage a world of compromised loyalties rather than uncomplicated heroism. His novels later followed the trade in influence, weapons and secrets beyond the Cold War.
Early life
An unsettled childhood
Born David Cornwell, he grew up with an often-absent mother and a father whose fraudulent dealings later informed his fiction.
Languages and observation
He studied in Bern and at Oxford, served in army intelligence and taught at Eton before joining the security services.
Career
- 1950s–1960s
Intelligence and first novels
Work for MI5 and MI6 overlapped with the beginning of his writing career under a pen name.
- 1963–1964
A breakthrough and a departure
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold became an international success, allowing him to write full-time.
- 1970s–1980s
The Smiley novels
George Smiley’s investigations explored betrayal within the British intelligence establishment.
- 1990s–2010s
After the Cold War
Later novels examined arms dealing, corporate power and the costs of contemporary security policy.
Selected work
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
An operation across the Iron Curtain forces its participants into devastating moral choices.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
A retired intelligence officer searches for a senior mole inside his former service.
A Perfect Spy
A spy’s childhood and relationship with his father become inseparable from his betrayals.
Beyond work
Writing in Cornwall
He spent much of his later life in Cornwall, where walking and the landscape supported his working routine.
Another writer in the family
His son Nick Harkaway became a novelist and later continued George Smiley’s fictional world.
Sources & photo credit
Life and career ↗Institutional or specialist reference ↗Photo: Krimidoedel. CC BY 3.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
