Le Carré worked as a British agent until his literary success allowed him to quit his undercover work to write full-time. He wrote 25 novels over nearly six decades, zeroing in on the machinations of the espionage community and distilling complex interior conflicts into eminently readable tales.įor millions of readers across the world, his allure lies in the authenticity and believability of his novels. His posthumous novel Silverview was published in 2021.John le Carré, who died over the weekend at age 89, left behind a remarkable literary legacy. His memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel, was published in 2016 and the last George Smiley novel, A Legacy of Spies, appeared in 2017.

At the end of the Cold War, le Carré widened his scope to explore an international landscape including the arms trade and the War on Terror. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People. He published his debut novel, Call for the Dead, in 1961 while still a secret servant. A spell of teaching at Eton led him to a short career in British Intelligence (MI5&6).

At sixteen he found refuge at the university of Bern, then later at Oxford. The son of a confidence trickster, he spent his childhood between boarding school and the London underworld. For six decades, he wrote novels that came to define our age. Series: The Penguin John le Carré Hardback Collection THE SIXTH GEORGE SMILEY NOVEL Read more Look Inside Details all burned on the brain of the reader' The New York Times the achievement is in the characters, major and minor. 'Energy, compassion, rich and overwhelming sweep of character and action' The Times His aim: revenge on Karla, head of Moscow Centre and the architect of all his troubles. Using the talents of journalist and occasional spy Jerry Westerby, Smiley launches a risky operation uncovering a Russian money-laundering scheme in the Far East. George Smiley, now acting head of the Circus, must rebuild its shattered reputation after one of the biggest betrayals in its history. In the second part of John le Carré's Karla Trilogy, the battle of wits between spymaster George Smiley and his Russian adversary takes on an even more dangerous dimension.

John le carre the honourable schoolboy