John le Carré
Personal Information
Description
David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 1931 – 12 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré was a British Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. A "sophisticated, morally ambiguous writer", he is considered one of the greatest novelists of the postwar era. During the 1950s and 1960s, he worked for both the Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Near the end of his life, due to his strong disapproval of Brexit, he took out Irish citizenship, which was possible due to his having an Irish grandparent. Le Carré's third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), became an international best-seller, was adapted as an award-winning film, and remains one of his best-known works. This success allowed him to leave MI6 to become a full-time author.His novels which have been adapted for film or television include The Looking Glass War (1965), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974, 2011), Smiley's People (1979), The Little Drummer Girl (1983), The Night Manager (1993), The Tailor of Panama (1996), The Constant Gardener (2001), A Most Wanted Man (2008) and Our Kind of Traitor (2010). Philip Roth said that A Perfect Spy (1986) was "the best English novel since the war".
Books
Absolute Friends
Ted Mundy, British soldier's son born 1947 in the shining-new Republic of Pakistan, is friends with Sasha, refugee son of an East German Lutheran pastor. The two men meet first as students in riot-torn West Berlin of the late sixties, again in the grimy looking-glass world of Cold War espionage and in today's world of terror. Originally published.
The Night Manager
Individual greed takes the place of old world rivalries of great nations. Inside look at the international cartel of illegal arms dealers, and drug smugglers. Lays forth an understanding of paradoxes in our unquestioning perceptions between evil and virtue! Heavy reading at best; smashing thoughts!
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a 1963 Cold War spy novel by the British author John le Carré. It depicts Alec Leamas, a British intelligence officer, being sent to East Germany as a faux defector to sow disinformation about a powerful East German intelligence officer. It serves as a sequel to le Carré's previous novels Call for the Dead and A Murder of Quality, which also featured the fictitious British intelligence organisation, "The Circus", and its agents George Smiley and Peter Guillam.
The Honourable Schoolboy
In the aftermath of the events described in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, George Smiley attempts to bring the Circus back from the brink and undo the damage caused by the traitor/mole Bill Haydon while still pursuing his "arch nemesis" Karla.
A murder of quality
Le Carre's second book and the only one that is a standard mystery set in a public school, rather than a story of espionage. George Smiley is again the main character.
The tailor of Panama
Andrew Osnard is an Old Etonian and spy. His secret mission in Panama is two-pronged: to keep an eye on the political manoeuvrings leading up to the American handover of the Panama Canal on 31st December 1999, and to secure for himself the immense private fortune that has thus far eluded him.
Single & single
A crooked father and an honest son are the protagonists of this novel on money laundering. The father is Tiger Single, owner of a British investment house, laundering money for criminals. His dream is to see his son follow in his footsteps, but the son is honest and will not have anything to do with him--until the father's life is threatened.