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| John le Carré |
10 ways of getting to know John le Carré
By BETHANNE PATRICKDEC. 14, 2020
John le Carré, the acknowledged sage of espionage fiction, had the literary equivalent of perfect pitch. Not only was he adept at mimicry, especially of the English upper class; he knew why and how to use it to decimate hypocrisy.
Le Carré died Dec. 12, and it’s safe to say the world will never see his like again, because his powers arose from unique, irreplaceable circumstances. Born David Cornwell in 1931, he was the son of the kind of hypocritical con man Le Carré grew up to loathe. Ronnie Cornwell became the model for Magnus Pym’s father, Rick Pym, in “A Perfect Spy.”
Postwar events gave him the rest of his experience and material, as well as the stage on which to display his gifts. He worked for 12 years for the British secret services, MI5 and MI6 — until Kim Philby’s betrayal gave his name up (among many others) to the KGB. That collateral damage was ultimately to our benefit; having already published two novels under his pseudonym, when Cornwell left MI6 in 1964 he turned to writing full time.
