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- BBC World News
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Cold War novelist John le Carré died at the age of 89 after a brief illness, his agent said Sunday.
The author of Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy (“The mole”) died of pneumonia Saturday night, said Jonny Geller, chief executive of the Curtis Brown Group literary agency.
John le Carré was the pseudonym of David John Moore Cornwell, born in 1931 and considered by many to be the master of the spy novel.
Geller described him as an “undisputed giant of English literature” who “defined the Cold War era and fearlessly spoke truth to power.”
“We will not see another like him again,” he said in a statement.
Dark life of spies
Meticulously researched and elegantly written, many of his books reached a wider audience through film and television adaptations.
Le Carré’s spies lacked the glamor of a James Bond
Le Carré shed the glamor and romance that is characteristic of James Bond novels and instead examined the true dark and seedy life of the professional spy.
The author portrayed his spies as fallible human beings, fully aware of their own shortcomings and those of the systems they served.
In the twilight world of le Carré’s characters, the distinction between good and evilit was never so clear.
The author worked in his youth at the UK Foreign Office, as Second Secretary at the British Embassy in Bonn, Germany.
In this role, he worked in the intelligence records department and began collecting ideas for spy stories on his travels between work and home.
The “famous” George Smiley
His first novel, Call the dead, appeared in 1961 while working for the intelligence service.
He adopted the pseudonym John le Carré to evade a ban on Foreign Ministry employees from publishing books under his own name.
Alec Guinness played George Smiley, Le Carré’s most famous creation
The story introduced characters who would reappear in later novels, including his most famous creation, George Smiley.
Le Carré’s career as a spy ended when he became one of many British agents whose names were given to the Russians by the traitor Kim Philby, recruited by the Soviet Union in the early 1930s and perhaps the most prominent double agent. 20th century.
British Philby, who defected to Moscow, later became the inspiration for the mole “Gerald” in “The mole”.
Was the third novel from the square, The spy who came from the cold, the which solidified his reputation and allowed him to pursue writing full time.
Published at the height of the Cold War, this book challenged the perception of many of its readers that Western spies were above the dirty tricks practiced by their counterparts in the East.
The novel won the Golden Dagger award for crime fiction and was made into a memorable film with Richard Burton as the disillusioned spy, Alec Leamas.
Le Carr’s booksTheir raised serious questions about how farthey went reach even democracies to preserve their own secrets.
He argued that in a world where official secrecy is omnipresent, the spy novel played a necessary democratic function. Holding a mirror, however distorted, of the secret world and demonstrating the monster it could become.
Ironically, le Carré delighted in keeping his personal life secret, refusing for many years even to admit that he had been a spy himself.
He jealously guarded his privacy and traveled alone and incognito when he went to research his novels.
For years he rejected interviews and maintained that what he wrote was “a thing of dreams, not reality” and that he was not, as the press seemed to imply, an expert in espionage.
“Man of great wit”
In 2003, le Carré joined a string of writers who criticized the US-led invasion of Iraq in an essay titled “The United States of America Has Gone Crazy.”
“The way that Bush and his junta managed to deflect US anger from Bin Laden to Saddam Hussein is one of the great tricks in public relations history,” he wrote.
His comments likely contributed to allegations of anti-American bias for his 2004 book. Absolute friends, an examination of the lives of two US radicals of the 1960s, who make peace with their old age.
Jonny Geller, who represented the novelist for nearly 15 years, said that “his loss will be felt by all book lovers, all interested in the human condition.”
Alec Guinness played George Smiley, Le Carré’s most famous creation
“We have lost a great figure in English literature, a man of great wit, kindness, humor and intelligence. I have lost a friend, a mentor and an inspiration,” he also said.
La Carré leaves his wife Jane, to whom he was married for almost 50 years, and their children Nicholas, Timothy, Stephen and Simon.
The author’s family said in a statement: “We are all deeply sorry for his passing. Our thanks to the wonderful team at the National Health System at Royal Cornwall Hospital for the care and compassion they showed him during his stay. We know that they share our sadness.” .
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