Le Carré's Legacy for Spies

David Cornwell - John Le Carré
Source: Krimidoedel

David Cornwell passed away last December. He was not only a brilliant writer, but also someone who once in a while kicked the conscience of the establishment. John Le Carré was the alter ego of David Cornwell, who wrote his first three novels while still working for MI5 and MI6, from 1959 to 1964.

Le Carré is renowned for spy novels that depict pretty realistically the live of spies, their masters and a bureaucracy full of backroom politics with a distinguished disregard for the very spy who risked his life for them. A huge contrast to the James Bond action-packed books and movies. History has unfortunately shown that the success of intelligence services is mostly measured by their failures and rarely by their successes, because the latter often should stay secret to remain a success.

Filter this blog by the label espionage and you will encounter many failures, tormented spies, executions and imprisonment. They often leave behind lots of debris, if not their life. The not so glorious life of spies, as Le Carré described so masterfully in his books.

From his Cold War marvels such as The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, A Small Town in Germany, A Perfect Spy or his brilliant but introvert spy catcher George Smiley, to his more recent and more critical Our Kind of Traitor, Legacy of Spies or Agent Running in the Field. All these, and many more books Le Carré wrote, and were filmed, show the game of espionage, all but glamorous, often taking a heavy toll on people involved.

Update: His last book Silverview was released in October 2021. I also took the change to read his first book again, the 1961 Call for the Dead that intruduced the famous secret service agent George Smiley.

He also wrote The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life, a splendid biography with countless dramatic, hilarious and weird events, with all kinds of people, honourable or questionable, that he encountered. Only a former MI5/MI6/secretary/consul/journalist could have lived such a curious life, of course neither confirmed nor denied. Le Carré's real legacy for spies is the knowledge that their life won't be all that great.

John Le Carré, the spy novel master who made it almost impossible for writers to create a credible spy with a loyal wife, a successful career, and caring superiors. He will forever remain my favourite writer of stories that could have been so beautiful but end so tragic.

Below some of the rare interviews David Cornwell gave. Or was it John Le Carré? One thing's for sure, we'll miss him dearly.

60 Minutes archives: Le Carré

In a CBC 2017 audio interview with John Le Carré (67 min), he talks about his early life, his work for the intelligence service, the characters in his books, the TV series and movies, and shares his view on contemporary politics. A Conversation with John le Carré (27 min) is a 2002 video interview about his books, the Cold War and intelligence services.

In the CIA Studies in Intelligence Volume 61 No 1, historian David Robarge wrote A Review of The Pigeon Tunnel (pdf, archived).  More about John Le Carré's life at The Guardian's Obituary.