![]() ![]() ![]() Le Carré’s spy novels were the result of firsthand espionage knowledge, as le Carré worked both for the Security Service (MI5) in London, and for the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6, aka “the Circus”) while posted as a diplomat in Germany at the height of the Cold War. Le Carré created George Smiley, a lonely, complex, and tormented intelligence analyst, the antitype of the flamboyant James Bond. Masterfully portrayed on screen by Sir Alec Guinness, Smiley is prone to “academic excursions into the mystery of human behavior, disciplined by the practical application of his own deductions.” Smiley’s worthy opponent is a Soviet spymaster called “Karla.” Author of such intricately woven yarns as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, and Smiley’s People, Cornwell was better known by his nom de plume John le Carré, and often dealt with the timeless issues of loyalty and betrayal, passion and death in his writing. ![]() The man whose books redefined the spy novel genre, David John Moore Cornwell, died of pneumonia on December 12 at the age of 89.
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