RIP John le Carre
 

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/13/946105256/spy-chronicler-john-le-carre-dies-at-89

In my view there is no better author of espionage that Mr. le Carre. Remember picking up the Spy Who Came in From the Cold and being drawn in to his characters and his story. Did a lot of international travel and when coming through London while I was reading the Smilley trilogy going down to Cambridge Circus to see the building that le Carre had set as headquarters.

Great characters and great character. I think I will go back and read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Honorable School Boy and Smiley's People again.

Writers like this are few and far between

loved his books. RIP

RIP to a great writer!

Loved his stories. 89 is a good run.

Agreed.

He was an amazing person. In real life Kim Philby blew his diplomatic cover. Le Carre could stay in the service but with his identity known he could no longer in a clandestine role, which took the fun out of it for him. Fortunately his third book, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold sold so well he could quit to write full time.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was supposedly hugely controversial inside the secret services. At the time there was a strong suspicion that the Director General of MI6 was a spy for the Soviets. The intelligence services thought he was telling family secrets.

Not many spy book authors can say that they were outed by Kim Philby and lived to tell about it.

I loved his books, read every one multiple times, up through Little Drummer Girl. I read an interview about the research he did for that book, which is about a German (?) girl who becomes enmeshed in the Israel/Palestinian conflict. He spent time with the Mossad, and he also spent time with the PLO and even Arafat; he really did his homework. The Honorable Schoolboy is probably my favorite of his books. Around when it came out I’d recently been to China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and as an impressionable youth, was ripe for more mind-traveling around Asia. The latest Tinker Tailor movie with Gary Oldman is one of the best spy movies ever made.

The latest Tinker Tailor movie with Gary Oldman is one of the best spy movies ever made.

Just watched this, still on NETFLIX through 12/30.

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Loved his writing.....