John le Carré catapulted to fame in 1963 following the publication of THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, which was promptly turned into a hit movie starring one of Hollywood’s leading actors, Richard Burton, as British spy Alec Leamas.
Thus began the long and successful career of a man, born to modest means as David John Moore Cornwell, in Poole, Dorset, England on October 19, 1931. His mother left him when he was five years old, and his father, continuously in debt, had been jailed for insurance fraud. Le Carré was shipped off to boarding schools and then enrolled at the University of Bern from 1948 to 1949 to study foreign languages. His proficiency in German led him to join the British Army Intelligence Corps, garrisoned in Allied-occupied Austria, in 1950. There he became a German-language interrogator of escapees from the Iron Curtain seeking asylum in the West. He returned to England in 1952 to study at Oxford, where he started working covertly for MI5, spying on far-left groups associated with Soviet agents. By 1960, he moved on to MI6 as an undercover agent at the British Embassy in Bonn and Hamburg.
It was at this time that le Carré began to write. His first novel, CALL FOR THE DEAD, was published in 1961 and introduced readers to British secret service agent George Smiley, who would become his most famous recurring character. His second book, A MURDER OF QUALITY, released in 1962, and the following year came the blockbuster THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD. 1986’s A PERFECT SPY has been regarded as the most autobiographical of his novels, featuring a double agent haunted by memories of his charismatic con-artist father.
As an avid fan of spy novels, I see John le Carré’s books in a class all by themselves, although Frederick Forsyth’s THE DAY OF THE JACKAL and Daniel Silva’s THE BLACK WIDOW are high on my hit lists. Perhaps it is because these agents stalk their targets in the more subtle game of spycraft --- the intuitive pursuit, fitting together the pieces of a challenging puzzle. Still, there is something to be said for the edge-of-your-seat popularity of the flashy cars, sexy women and action-packed James Bond approach. Let’s face it: le Carré translated from the French means “a square,” while Ian Fleming has an international airport named after him in Jamaica. Just saying. You want what you want.
Le Carré’s last novel was AGENT RUNNING IN THE FIELD, a great read that I had the honor of reviewing for Bookreporter in 2019. He had just celebrated his 88th birthday. After gathering research for this tribute to one of the genre’s most beloved authors, I stand in awe. It is now clear that his final book was autobiographical in scope --- a fitting homage to a long and magnificent career.
As it appears we will be staying close to home for the forseeable future, I will happily plunge into le Carré’s books. Even those I have already read.
