John le Carré

by Adam Sisman

  The success of Tomas Alfredson’s film of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy proved encouraging in the Ink Factory’s early days. A Most Wanted Man was the company’s first production, and it will be followed by their adaptation of Our Kind of Traitor, scheduled for release in 2016. A film of A Delicate Truth is in development. The Ink Factory is also producing a six-part dramatisation of The Night Manager for the BBC Television, and developing Absolute Friends as a three-part television series.

  Although David is closely associated with the company, it is developing a number of projects unrelated to his work. ‘We would like to grow to become one of the larger players in the European independent media sector,’ Simon told Variety.43

  In his eighty-fourth year, David shows little sign of slowing down. Though he no longer starts work quite so early in the morning, he still drives himself harder than most men half his age. He cannot walk so far as he used to, but he still tries to walk for an hour every day. For him, writing is ‘the whole of life’. When he is not working on a book, he is restless and uncomfortable; and when he is working on a book, he is absorbed in it. He and Jane ‘talk book’ all the time. This involves the sacrifice of leisure and social life, not just for himself, but for Jane also. ‘It may be senile delusion, but I seem to be writing well just now, and long after my sell-by date,’ David wrote recently, in a letter of apology for declining two invitations from his old friend August Hanning. ‘The writing days have become so precious, and necessarily so short, that I have to hoard every one of them.’44

  Why does David persevere, at an age when most men are mowing the lawn or relaxing in a deckchair? His near-contemporary Len Deighton, for example, published his last novel in 1996. It cannot be for the financial rewards, because he has earned more money than he could ever spend; nor for the acclamation, because even a droplet of criticism sours a mouthful of praise.

  A glib answer might be that writing has become a form of addiction for him. Perhaps there is some truth in this, though he has often said that he will stop writing if told (who would tell him?) that his books are not as good as they used to be. In 2015 he abandoned the novel that he had been working on since finishing A Delicate Truth. It is obvious from even a superficial examination that his books are intensely personal; indeed, one reason why they are so compelling is that he puts so much of himself into them. David himself has suggested that, if he had not become a writer, he might have become a criminal, like his father. One could conclude that writing was David’s version of the psychoanalyst’s couch. Perhaps his books are his way of ordering an untidy life.

  Asked how it felt to be eighty, David replied that it seemed premature:

  It was always in the contract, I just didn’t know they would deliver so soon. But it’s okay. I feel ready to die. I’ve had an incredibly good life, an exciting one. I’ve got 13 grandchildren and fantastic wives for my sons. I was the bridge they had to cross to get from my father to life … I find it very difficult to read my own stuff, but I look at it with satisfaction. So if it were over very soon, I would not feel anything except gratitude. To have had my life and be ungrateful for it would be a sin.45

  * Not to be confused with Issa Kostoyev, the Ingush policeman-turned-politician.

  * ‘The most compassionate, truthful and dignified account of the disgrace of Guantánamo that you are ever likely to read’.

  * Curveball had testified to his BND handlers to the existence of a programme of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

  * Aubrey Longrigg MP. Johnnie Longrigg (1923–2007) served in SIS for thirty years, including a spell in Bonn in the mid-1950s; his brother, the prolific novelist Roger Longrigg (1929–2000), had been a close friend of James Kennaway.

  * Pinter had accepted his CBE in 1966. In the 1990s he declined the offer of a knighthood.

  * Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was jokingly referred to as ‘Get the Wrong One Out’.

  † At an earlier stage Jim Broadbent had been considered for the part.

  * In fact David was some months short of his eightieth birthday.

  * ‘She must have known pretty well’, commented David, ‘that when I was in MI5 I ran one of its most prolific and successful agents for the better part of two years without mishap.’ He would not be drawn on who this was.

  * Some reports suggested that the two had spoken since their argument, and that David had voiced regret; in fact there had been no direct contact between them.

  Notes

  Where the name of the author is not given, it is John le Carré. All quotations from his books are from the first British editions, unless otherwise stated.

  Abbreviations:

  DC David Cornwell

  AC Ann Cornwell

  JC Jane Cornwell

  Introduction

  1 ‘Espionage is an accident’ (interview with Olga Craig), Seven (Sunday Telegraph magazine), 29 August 2010; John C. Q. Roberts, Speak Clearly into the Chandelier: Cultural Politics between Britain and Russia, 1973–2000 (Curzon, 2000), p. 168.

  2 Blake Morrison, ‘Love and betrayal in the mist’, Times Literary Supplement, 11 April 1986; William Boyd, ‘Rereading: The Spy who Came in from the Cold’, Guardian, 24 July 2010; Carlos Ruiz Zafón, ‘My Hero’, Guardian, 2 April 2011.

  3 Ian McEwan, ‘John le Carré deserves Booker’ (interview with Jon Stock), Daily Telegraph, 3 May 2013.

  4 David Mamet, ‘The Humble Genre Novel, Sometimes Full of Genius’, New York Times, 17 January 2000.

  1: Millionaire paupers

  1 Clyde Binfield, ‘Sir Makepeace Watermaster and the March of Christian People: An Interaction of Fiction, Fact and Politics’, in J. P. Parry and Stephen Taylor (eds), Parliament and the Church, 1529–1960 (Edinburgh University Press, 2000); James Johnson, A Hundred Commoners (Herbert Joseph, 1931); A Perfect Spy (Hodder & Stoughton, 1986), and ‘In Ronnie’s Court’, New Yorker, 18 and 25 February 2002.

  2 ‘A Serious Outlook: Future of Poole Cricket Club’, ‘Changing Political Situation’, ‘Preparing for a Sale’ and ‘Poole Cricketer Injured’, Poole and East Dorset Herald, 13 March, 3 and 24 July 1924.

  3 This was in a tape-recorded message to her sons, in which she recalled her early life, her marriage and her subsequent relations with Ronnie.

  4 Ed Perkins, ‘Why le Carré’s Father went to Jail’ and ‘Le Carré’s Other People’, Daily Echo (Bournemouth), 15 August and 20 September 2011.

  5 Margaret Chatterjee to DC, 12 April 2001.

  6 ‘Carré on Spying’, Daily Echo (Bournemouth), 24 April 1999; Patricia Wilnecker to DC, 27 April 1999.

  7 ‘ “The Ninth” at Poole’ and ‘Admiral Cornwell’, Poole and East Dorset Herald, 15 and 22 November 1928.

  8 ‘In Ronnie’s Court’, p. 135.

  9 Ibid., p. 134.

  10 Anthony Cornwell, ‘My Brother’s Father and Mine’ (unpublished, 1986).

  11 Ibid.

  12 ‘In Ronnie’s Court’, p. 150.

  13 ‘Spying on my Father’, Sunday Times Review, 16 March 1986.

  14 ‘In Ronnie’s Court’, p. 144.

  15 Anthony Cornwell, ‘My Brother’s Father and Mine’.

  16 Poole and East Dorset Herald, 29 November 1928.

  17 History of the Poole Round Table No. 12 (1929–2008) (privately published).

  18 ‘Brothers in Business’, Poole and East Dorset Herald, 22 January 1931.

  19 Western Gazette, 29 August 1930.

  20 Poole and East Dorset Herald, 15 October 1931; Western Gazette, 23 October 1931.

  21 These and subsequent details of Ronnie’s business activities are taken from the account of his cross-examination by the Official Receiver in the Poole and East Dorset Herald, 11 June 1936.

  22 A Perfect Spy, p. 81.

  23 ‘In Ronnie’s Court’, p. 136.

  24 Ibid., p. 143.

  2: ‘We seek higher things’

  1 Ronnie’s words quoted in this paragraph derive from ‘In Ronnie’s Court’.

  2 DC to Tony Cornwell, 15 May 2007.


  3 A Perfect Spy, pp. 320–1.

  4 Ibid., p. 181.

  5 Clive Powell-Williams, With All Thy Might: The History of St Martin’s School, 1922 to 1992 (privately published, 1992), p. 194.

  6 ‘In Ronnie’s Court’, p. 149.

  7 ‘Carré on Spying’, Daily Echo (Bournemouth), 24 April 1999.

  8 Ibid.

  9 ‘In Ronnie’s Court’, p. 142.

  10 I am indebted for this and many other details to the current headmaster of St Andrew’s, Dr David Livingstone. His article about David’s career at the school appears in the Chronicle (the school magazine) for 2012.

  11 ‘In England Now’, New York Times Magazine, 23 October 1977, p. 34.

  12 Ibid.

  13 Ibid.

  14 Gordon Ross, Playfair Cricket Monthly, c. 1965, extracted on the Cricinfo website.

  15 ‘In England Now’, pp. 34–5.

  16 Ibid., p. 34.

  17 Unpublished autobiographical fragment.

  18 Melvyn Bragg, ‘A Talk with John le Carré’, New York Times, 13 March 1983.

  19 ‘In Ronnie’s Court’, p. 149.

  20 William Douglas Home, Half-Term Report: An Autobiography (Longman, 1954), pp. 151–62.

  21 ‘Earl’s son, now in jail, wants to be an M.P.’, Sunday Express, 27 May 1945.

  22 ‘In Ronnie’s Court’, p. 134.

  23 Peggy Duff, quoted in the Chelmsford Chronicle, 16 March 1945.

  24 JC to Alec Howe and Alison Whyte, undated 1987.

  25 DC to R. S. Thompson, 24 June 1945, Sherborne School Archives.

  3: God and Mammon

  1 Huw Ridgeway, ‘A Short History of Sherborne School’, from the school website. Some of the subsequent details are derived from this source.

  2 Afterword to the Penguin Classics edition of A Murder of Quality (2010).

  3 A. B. Gourlay and D. F. Gibbs, Chief: A Biography of Alexander Ross Wallace, 1891–1982 (privately published, 1983). See also Gourlay, A History of Sherborne School (privately published, 1971).

  4 Alec Waugh: The Loom of Youth (Methuen, 1917), pp. 12 and 21.

  5 ‘In England Now’, p. 35.

  6 A Perfect Spy, pp. 138–9.

  7 ‘Violent Image’ (interview with Alan Watson), Sunday Times, 30 March 1969.

  8 Ronnie Cornwell to R. S. Thompson, 3 June 1946; Jean Cornwell to R. S. Thompson, 22 November 1945.

  9 ‘In Ronnie’s Court’, p. 150.

  10 Shirburnian, Summer 1948.

  11 Shirburnian, Summer 1951.

  12 Contribution to the Arvon Fundraising Crisis Appeal, April 1988.

  13 Shirburnian, Summer 1948.

  14 Keynote address by John le Carré at the opening of the ‘Think German’ Conference at Archbishop Whitgift School, Croydon, 25 June 2010.

  15 Ibid.

  16 ‘In Ronnie’s Court’, p. 142.

  17 ‘John le Carré at the NFT’ (interview with Adrian Wootton), Guardian, 5 October 2002.

  18 ‘Spying on my Father’.

  19 Wodehouse, John, 4th Earl of Kimberley, The Whim of the Wheel: The Memoirs of the Earl of Kimberley (privately published, 2001), p. 51.

  20 ‘Spying on my Father’; ‘In Ronnie’s Court’, p. 147.

  21 ‘In Ronnie’s Court’, p. 151.

  22 The Whim of the Wheel, p. 61.

  23 Gourlay and Gibbs, Chief, p. 62.

  24 ‘Spying on my Father’; ‘In Ronnie’s Court’, p. 147.

  25 Ronnie Cornwell to Canon Wallace, 3 May 1948, Sherborne School Archives.

  26 Ronnie Cornwell to R. S. Thompson, 12, 15 and 19 January 1948, Sherborne School Archives.

  27 Jean Cornwell to R. S. Thompson, 2 March 1948, Sherborne School Archives.

  28 Ronnie Cornwell to R. S. Thompson, 8 April 1948, Sherborne School Archives.

  29 R. S. Thompson to Keith Murray, 2 May 1952, Lincoln College Archive.

  30 ‘In Ronnie’s Court’, p. 147. After this story appeared in the New Yorker, Tony told David that he had ‘stolen’ it from him. He argues that he had been sent to see the Ansorges alone and that David had learned about this from him. David sticks to his account that both boys were present. Whatever the truth of the matter, it seems clear that David was distressed by the fact that he and his brother were being made complicit in his father’s dealings.

  31 DC to R. S. Thompson, 5 May 1952, Sherborne School Archives.

  32 Ronnie Cornwell to R. S. Thompson, 21 September 1948, Sherborne School Archives.

  33 Canon Wallace’s note to Thompson on the above letter, undated, Sherborne School Archives.

  34 R. S. Thompson to Keith Murray, 2 May 1952, Lincoln College Archive.

  35 R. S. Thompson to Frank Fisher, 9 February 1956, ibid.

  36 Keynote address by John le Carré at the opening of the ‘Think German’ Conference at Archbishop Whitgift School.

  37 ‘In Ronnie’s Court’, p. 149.

  38 Interview with Hunter Davies in the Mail on Sunday, 17 February 1991. This interview was mocked in The Times diary (‘In from the cold’, 21 February 1991).

  39 Canon Julian Eagle and Bill Blackshaw to R. S. Thompson, 18 and 23 February 1991, Sherborne School Archives.

  40 DC to R. S. Thompson, undated but probably written on 16 September 1948, Sherborne School Archives.

  41 ‘In Ronnie’s Court’, p. 150.

  42 DC to R. S. Thompson, 5 May 1952, Sherborne School Archives.

  4: Wandering in the fog

  1 This paragraph and much of the detail that follows is taken from the text of a speech given by David Cornwell on the occasion of the 175th anniversary of the University of Bern on 6 June 2009.

  2 I am grateful to Professor John E. Jackson of the University of Bern for information on David’s professors.

  3 DC to Jon Meccarello (in a letter to Andrew Ross, 30 October 1996).

  4 For an interesting article on this subject, see Martin Swales, ‘Manichean Realism? Reflections on John le Carré’s Indebtedness to German Literature’, Angermion VI (Berlin, 2013).

  5 DC to Ann Sharp, 4 December 1950.

  6 ‘At the Edge of the Real World’, Sunday Telegraph Review, 14 November 1999.

  7 ‘In Ronnie’s Court’; Foreword to the Lamplighter edition of Single & Single (2001).

  8 DC to Ann Sharp, 3 January 1951.

  9 ‘Spying on my Father’.

  10 ‘Standing for Yarmouth’, Eastern Daily Press, 20 January 1950.

  11 ‘Notes by the Way’, Yarmouth Mercury, 13 and 20 January 1950.

  12 ‘Liberal Candidate Attacks Conscription’, Yarmouth Mercury, 3 February 1950.

  13 ‘Hitch Waggon to This Star’, Eastern Daily Press, 2 February 1950.

  14 ‘Fair Crack of the Whip’, Eastern Daily Press, 4 February 1950.

  15 ‘To the Electors of the Yarmouth Division of Norfolk’, 11 February 1950.

  16 ‘Constantine at Brains Trust’, Eastern Daily Press, 18 February 1950.

  17 ‘Through the Storm a Message’, Eastern Daily Press, 21 February 1950.

  18 ‘Secrets and Lies’ (interview with Alan Franks), The Times, 13 February 1999.

  19 ‘Statement by Mr Cornwell’, Eastern Daily Press, 22 February 1950.

  20 ‘John le Carré: The Secret Centre’ (interview with Nigel Williams), BBC 2, 2000.

  21 ‘Not Death of Liberalism’ and ‘Liberals Prepare for Next Fight’, Yarmouth Mercury, 3 and 10 February 1950.

  5: Serving your country

  1 A Perfect Spy, pp. 430–1.

  2 For background information on National Service I am indebted to Trevor Royle’s The Best Years of Their Lives: The National Service Experience, 1945–63 (Michael Joseph, 1986).

  3 DC to Ann Sharp, 11 October and 4 November 1950.

  4 Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 (Allen Lane, 2009), p. 390.

  5 DC to Ann Sharp, 26 May 1951.

  6 DC to Ann Sharp, 19, 20, 22, 24 and 30 November 1950.

  7 DC to Ann Sharp, 7 Decemb
er 1950 and undated.

  8 David Cornwell, ‘Pretty Blue Pullovers’, Downhill Only Club Journal, vol. 2, no. 9 (November 1951).

  9 Foreword to the Lamplighter edition of Call for the Dead (1992).

  10 DC to Ann Sharp, 3 and 15 January, 11 February 1951.

  11 DC to Ann Sharp, 18 February 1951 and undated.

  12 DC to Ann Sharp, 1 January 1951.

  13 DC to Ann Sharp, undated and 13 March 1951.

  14 DC to Ann Sharp, 24, 26 and 27 March 1951.

  15 DC to Ann Sharp, 30 March and 13 April 1951. The letters are dated ‘1954’, but this must be a slip.

  16 DC to Ann Sharp, 3 and 9 May 1951.

  17 Andrew, Defence of the Realm, pp. 385–96.

  18 DC to Ann Sharp, 28 June 1951.

  19 A Perfect Spy, pp. 339–40.

  20 DC to Ann Sharp, 1 September, 11, 18, 24 and 27 October and 13 November 1951.

  21 DC to Ann Sharp, 18 October 1951.

  22 ‘The Madness of Spies’, New Yorker, 29 September 2008.

  23 DC to Ann Sharp, 30 November and [illegible] December 1951.

  24 ‘D.H.O. Team Report, Season 1951–52’, Downhill Only Club Journal, vol. 2, no. 10 (November 1952).

  25 DC to Ann Sharp, 16, 22 and 27 January 1952.

  26 ‘In Ronnie’s Court’, pp. 144–6.

  27 DC to Ann Sharp, [illegible] February 1952.

  28 DC to Ann Sharp, 12 and 17 February 1952.

  29 DC to Ann Sharp, 22 February and 8 March 1952.

  30 ‘BBA Law Day Dinner Remarks’, Boston Bar Journal, July/August 1993.

  31 DC to Ann Sharp, 17 March 1952.