Spy like us: John. The death of Le Carré … The Cold War legend of the British master of spy fiction | The last 24 hours | udn Global



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2020/12/14 24 hour corner


“I’m just a …” He became a “spy novelist.” The giant legend of British spy novelist John. John Le Carré-On the night of the 12th, he died of severe pneumonia at the age of 89. Photo / Associated Press

【#Last 24 hours 12.14 UK

Spy Like Us: John The Death of Le Carré … The Cold War Legend of the Master of British Spy Novels

“I’m just a …” It turned out to be a “spy novelist.” The giant legend of British spy novelist John. John Le Carré-On the afternoon of the 12th, he died of severe pneumonia at the age of 89. Le Carré, who has written for more than half a century, was once a senior intelligence officer who served in British MI5 and MI6. Therefore, at the height of the Cold War in 1963, he was involved in the “Cambridge” that shocked the Western world. In the two-faced covert desertion from the Soviet Union, Le Carré, who was exposed as a spy, was forced to leave the intelligence circle and became a full-time spy novelist. In the Cold War era, Le Carré once used “The Spy Who Came from the Cold” (The Spy Who Came from the Cold), “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” … and other prominent and harsh narratives to become the most highlights of the Cold War era. Maximum master of spy novels.

Although after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Cold War type of spy novels remained temporarily silent due to the advance of the great wheel of history; but the writing style of Le Carré has not been eliminated by the times, but has expanded through the combination of various evolutions and cinematographic adaptations. The influence of “Master Spy” – in addition to several classic adaptations – leaves Rachel. Whites won the 2006 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for “The Constant Gardener,” and Tom. The popular “Night Shift Manager” series starring Hiddleston is also a jealous world full of international realities and conspiracies in Le Carré’s novels.

The news of Le Carré’s death was an obituary issued by the author’s agent Jonny Geller on the night of the 13th: Le Carré, 89, was allegedly infected by seasonal wind and cold due to his age. He quickly deteriorated and was complicated by pneumonia (the obituary specifically said it had nothing to do with COVID-19), and finally died on the night of December 12 at the hospital in his hometown of Cornwall, in the Southwest England, at the age of 89.

“John Le Carré” is David. The pseudonym used by David Cornwell to write invisibility: He was born in the South West of England in 1931. Although he was born into a family of medium to high level, he had seen through the “fragility of morality and hypocrisy”. human nature “.

Le Carre’s father, Ronnie. Ronnie Cornwell – is a famous insurance scammer who floated up and down in shopping malls. In his career, he not only broke through bankruptcy, incarceration, and betrayed his family many times; In the post-war period, Ronnie Cornwell also broke with the gangster who was sweeping the underground society of East London. “Kray Brothers” (Kray Twins, known in recent years for the movie “Gold Gangs” in which actor Tom Hardy plays the two roles alone), is too close.

Due to the blatant acts of her father Ronnie, her mother ran away from home when she was 5 years old and did not recognize her again until Le Carré turned 21. However, during this process, Le Carré, who was forced to become independent early and understand “the troubled and ruthless people of the world,” has also developed his own hard-line perspective on observing the world. Although the strained rift between him and his father could not be repaired, even after Old Cornwell’s death, his mute son did not attend the mourning except for funeral expenses.

After the end of WWII, Le Carré, who graduated from the preparatory course, applied for the foreign language department at the University of Bern, Switzerland, and later joined the British Army’s military intelligence unit due to his German skill, and was stationed in Austria with the Allied occupation force. —During this period, Le Carré’s missions and training were mainly directed at the “infiltration of anti-communist spies” from the Soviet Union. Later, due to his rich experience in front-line practice, he was absorbed into MI5. Since then, El Camino was officially launched as a “spy” agent.

On the left is
On the left is “Cold War Bournemouth” and on the right an early version of the new version of “Operation Bourne”. Photo / Wikimedia Commons

Le Carré's mission and training were primarily directed at the
Le Carré’s mission and training were primarily aimed at the “infiltration of anti-communist spies” from the Soviet Union. Later, due to his rich experience in front-line practice, he was absorbed into MI5. Since then, he has officially started his espionage path as a “spy.” The picture shows the film “Operation Bourne” adapted from Le Carré’s novel. Image / Still images from “Operation Bourne”

After joining MI5, Le Carré returned home and enrolled at Lincoln College at the University of Oxford despite Le Carré’s academic performance being excellent. However, the purpose of the registration is MI5 to monitor the “professional students” deployed by leftist elites on campus and the pro-Soviet reverse osmosis spy.

After graduating from Oxford, Le Carré taught foreign languages ​​at the main Eton College for two years before becoming a full member of MI5. According to his own account, during his work at MI5, on the one hand, he had to carry out various surveillance operations, wiretapping, interrogations and intelligence threats; on the other hand, he also saw various stories and stories through the underworld of the Cold War agents. He was inspired, and gradually developed his usual interest in “writing stories.”

In the 1960s, Le Carré was transferred from MI5 for internal intelligence to MI6 for foreign espionage; this unit is also another “predecessor” of Ian, who also worked as a spy and loves to write. Fleming (Ian Fleming) and the birthplace of the series “007”.

But the stories of Fleming “007” are mostly full of colorful and passionate imagination (violent action plots, cutting edge technology, imagination of the future, romantic romance in the style of a romance novel) and Le Carré are difficult and even always realistic. The tangled “spy style” that is somewhat depressing and boring is quite different.

 Photo / Reuters
Photo / Reuters

In fact, during his tenure at MI6, Le Carré also officially published his first spy novel “Call for the Dead” (1961) under the pseudonym “Le Carré” for the first time. Le Carré’s writing content and his progress as a “secret agent” actually require internal notification and review before it can be published, but according to his personal account:

“Before the publication of my novel, the superiors had to review it, but they almost never encountered problems in the process … because the insiders know that” these stories are just fabricated novels and are not enough to affect Guoan’s risk control in the reality “. “; But in the eyes of outside readers and book reviews, it is another matter … Instead, they believe that the plot of the character I wrote is closer to the true “clandestine life of spies” “.

However, this spy and message writer model did not last long. Because in 1963, the “Cambridge Five Incident” (Cambridge Five), which was absorbed by the Russian Communist Party and hidden in the British spy ring for decades, was due to the number one espionage at Cambridge University (Kim Philby)) He defected to the Soviet Union and leaked the list of secret agents within MI6, including Le Carré, to Moscow.

As a result, Le Carré, whose identity was exposed and the spy’s future was forced to disrupt, had no choice but to leave the intelligence circle and formally become a “storyteller spy.”

Due to the relationship between personal experience and the emerging era, Le Carré’s most famous espionage stories are mainly set in the context of the “Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union” era. But unlike the “007” series, the elegant, smooth, attractive and invincible “Superman Setting” of Pound, Le Carré’s classic character George. George Smiley is a middle-aged Briton with owl glasses and an old academic style. The characters in the story always suffer from various emotional and moral frailties, hypocrisy and helplessness. The atmosphere of the general worldview is like the weather in Great Britain,

“Darkness and chaos … There is not, and it is always indistinguishable from the limit of morality and the end of humanity.”

It is precisely because of this gray sense of entanglement that Le Carré’s wit, courage and “spy against spy” patience are manifested. But the special thing is that, even though the story of Le Carré began to look like a “setting of the times” after the 1990s, it is no longer limited to strolls along the high walls of East and West Germany, as “Cloud Death Suspicion,” which was adapted as an Oscar gold calling card. The conspiracy of Africa and the multinational pharmaceutical factory is set in the modern era, but Le Carré’s hardline Cold War spy novel unexpectedly began to regain popularity in the 2010s.

“The reason the British have a soft spot for ‘spy novels’ is probably because we have hidden two coexisting national characteristics: ‘hidden imperialist plot’ and ‘hypocritical personality’.

At a reading exchange meeting in 2020, Le Carré, who is still full of creative spirit, had the following to say: The story of spies always unearths our cowardice towards human nature, “the kind of inertia it is unwilling to face. our own mistakes and betrayals. ” And a series of contradictions from Quintessence of Cambridge in Fairby to Brexit, these characteristics just repeat and overlap, “it’s a very British twist.”

 Photo / Associated Press
Photo / Associated Press

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