Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
John le Carré
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==Work in security services== He ran agents, conducted interrogations, [[tapped telephone]] lines and effected break-ins.<ref name="GartonAsh-TNY-1999-03-12">{{Cite magazine|last=Ash|first=Timothy Garton|author-link=Timothy Garton Ash|date=15 March 1999|title=The Real le Carré|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/03/15/the-real-le-carre|url-status=live|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|volume=75|issue=3|pages=36–45|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201214155114/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/03/15/the-real-le-carre|archive-date=14 December 2020|access-date=14 December 2020}}</ref> Encouraged by [[John Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris|Lord Clanmorris]] (who wrote crime novels as "John Bingham"), and while being an active MI5 officer, Cornwell began writing his first novel, ''[[Call for the Dead]]'' (1961). Cornwell identified Lord Clanmorris as one of two models for [[George Smiley]], the spymaster of the [[Cambridge Circus, London|Circus]], the other being [[Vivian H. H. Green]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1481995/The-Reverend-Vivian-Green.html |title=The Reverend Vivian Green |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=26 January 2005|access-date=4 August 2011 |archive-date=13 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113195545/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1481995/The-Reverend-Vivian-Green.html |url-status=live }}</ref> As a schoolboy, Cornwell first met the latter when Green was the Chaplain and Assistant Master at Sherborne School (1942–51). The friendship continued after Green's move to Lincoln College, where he tutored Cornwell.<ref name="Singh-2011">{{Cite news|last1=Singh|first1=Anita|title=John le Carré: The Real George Smiley Revealed|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8344925/John-le-Carre-the-real-George-Smiley-revealed.html|website=The Daily Telegraph|access-date=3 September 2016|date=24 February 2011|archive-date=22 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160322171542/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8344925/John-le-Carre-the-real-George-Smiley-revealed.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1960, Cornwell transferred to [[MI6]], the foreign-intelligence service, and worked under the cover of Second Secretary at the British Embassy in [[Bonn]]. He was later transferred to [[Hamburg]] as a political [[Consul (representative)|consul]].<ref name=":0" /> There, he wrote the detective story ''[[A Murder of Quality]]'' (1962) and ''[[The Spy Who Came in from the Cold]]'' (1963), as "John le Carré"—a pseudonym required because [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office|Foreign Office]] staff were forbidden to publish under their own names.<ref name="BBC2020">{{cite news |title=John le Carré: Espionage writer dies aged 89 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-55297558 |access-date=14 December 2020 |work=BBC News |date=14 December 2020 |archive-date=13 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201213224356/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-55297558 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Lawless |first1=Jill |title=Master spy writer John le Carre dies at 89 |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/13/world/agent-master-spy-writer-john-le-carre-dies-89/ |website=Boston Globe |publisher=Associated Press |access-date=27 January 2023 |date=13 December 2020 |quote=His first three novels were written while he was a spy, and his employers required him to publish under a pseudonym.}}</ref> The meaning of the pseudonym is ambiguous: he sometimes said he had seen "le Carré" on a storefront, and later said he couldn't remember an origin.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Adler-Bell |first=Sam |date=13 July 2023 |title=The Essential John le Carré |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/article/john-le-carre-books.html |access-date=4 November 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> When translated, "le carré" means "the square".<ref name=":1" /> In 1964, le Carré's career as an intelligence officer came to an end as the result of the betrayal of British agents' [[Cover (intelligence)|covers]] to the [[KGB]] by [[Kim Philby]], the infamous British [[double agent]], one of the [[Cambridge Five]].<ref name="observer"/><ref name="Plimpton">{{cite journal|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1250/the-art-of-fiction-no-149-john-le-carr|title=John le Carré, The Art of Fiction No. 149|year=1997|last1=Plimpton |first1=George|author-link=George Plimpton| journal=[[The Paris Review]]|volume=143|access-date=14 December 2020|archive-date=15 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160515190035/http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1250/the-art-of-fiction-no-149-john-le-carr|url-status=live}}</ref> Le Carré depicted and analysed Philby as the upper-class traitor, codenamed "Gerald" by the KGB, the [[Mole (espionage)|mole]] hunted by George Smiley in ''[[Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy]]'' (1974).<ref>{{cite news |url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article4823222.ece |title=Then and Now: John le Carre |first=Blake |last=Morrison |work=[[Times Literary Supplement]] |date=11 April 1986|access-date=4 August 2011 |archive-date=14 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201214015916/https://www.the-tls.co.uk/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=Brennan/>
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
John le Carré
(section)
Add topic