View source for John le Carré

{{Short description|British novelist and former spy (1931–2020)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox writer
| image        = John le Carre.jpg
| alt          = John le Carré in Hamburg (10 November 2008)
| caption      = Le Carré in Hamburg, 2008
| birth_name   = David John Moore Cornwell
| birth_date   = {{birth date|1931|10|19|df=y}}
| birth_place  = [[Poole]], England
| death_date   = {{death date and age|2020|12|12|1931|10|19|df=y}}
| death_place  = [[Truro]], England
| citizenship  = {{ubl | United Kingdom | Ireland ({{c.|2020}}) }}
| occupation   = {{cslist | Novelist | intelligence officer }}
| genre        = [[Spy fiction]]
| education    = {{ubl | [[University of Bern]] | [[Lincoln College, Oxford]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])}}
| notableworks = {{cslist | ''[[The Spy Who Came in from the Cold]]'' | ''[[Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy]]'' | ''[[The Honourable Schoolboy]]'' | ''[[Smiley's People]]'' | ''[[The Little Drummer Girl]]'' | ''[[A Perfect Spy]]'' | ''[[The Night Manager]]'' | ''[[The Tailor of Panama]]'' | ''[[The Constant Gardener]]''}}
| website      = {{Official website|johnlecarre.com}}
| spouse       = {{ubl |{{marriage|Alison Sharp|1954|1971|end=div}} | {{marriage|Valerie Eustace<br />|1972}} }}
| children     = 4, including [[Nick Harkaway|Nicholas]]
| relatives    = {{ubl|[[Jane Cornwell]] (second wife)|[[Anthony Cornwell]] (brother)|[[Rupert Cornwell]] (half-brother)|[[Charlotte Cornwell]] (half-sister)}}
| signature    = John le Carré signature.png
}}

'''David John Moore Cornwell''' (19 October 1931{{spnd}}12 December 2020), better known by his pen name '''John le Carré''' ({{IPAc-en|l|ə|ˈ|k|ær|eɪ}} {{respell|lə|KARR|ay}}),<ref>{{cite web|date=November 2019|title=Say How: I–L|url=https://www.loc.gov/nls/about/organization/standards-guidelines/ijkl/#l|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180919013800/http://www.loc.gov/nls/about/organization/standards-guidelines/ijkl/#l|archive-date=19 September 2018|access-date=28 May 2018|website=Library of Congress|publisher=National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped}}</ref> was a British author,<ref>{{cite news|title=John le Carré: Irish citizenship a 'small salute' to my grandmother|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55334022|access-date=8 June 2024|publisher=BBC News|date=16 December 2020}}</ref> best known for his [[espionage novel]]s, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. A "sophisticated, morally ambiguous writer",<ref name="NYT">{{Cite news |last=Garner |first=Dwight |date=14 December 2020 |title=John le Carré, a Master of Spy Novels Where the Real Action Was Internal |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/14/books/john-le-carre-critics-appraisal.html |access-date=26 October 2022}}</ref> he is considered one of the greatest novelists of the postwar era. During the 1950s and 1960s, he worked for both the Security Service ([[MI5]]) and the Secret Intelligence Service ([[MI6]]).<ref name="Luke">{{Cite news |last=Harding |first=Luke |date=2 September 2016 |title=John le Carré: I was beaten by my father, abandoned by my mother |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/02/john-le-carre-beaten-by-father-abandoned-by-mother-the-pigeon-tunnel-memoir |access-date=26 October 2022}}</ref> Near the end of his life, le Carré became an Irish citizen.

Le Carré's third novel, ''[[The Spy Who Came in from the Cold]]'' (1963), became an international best-seller, was adapted as an [[The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (film)|award-winning film]], and remains one of his best-known works. This success allowed him to leave MI6 to become a full-time author.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Kerridge|first=Jake|date=14 December 2020|title=How John le Carré's early miseries led to the great masterpieces|work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/14/parts-john-le-carres-life-transformed-astounding-books/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/14/parts-john-le-carres-life-transformed-astounding-books/ |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=2 March 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref> His other novels that have been adapted for film or television include ''[[The Looking Glass War]]'' (1965), ''[[Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy]]'' (1974), ''[[Smiley's People]]'' (1979), ''[[The Little Drummer Girl]]'' (1983), ''[[The Russia House]]'' (1989), ''[[The Night Manager]]'' (1993), ''[[The Tailor of Panama]]'' (1996), ''[[The Constant Gardener]]'' (2001), ''[[A Most Wanted Man]]'' (2008) and ''[[Our Kind of Traitor (novel)|Our Kind of Traitor]]'' (2010). In 2008, ''[[The Times]]'' named le Carré one of the "50 greatest British writers since 1945".<ref>[http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/books/article2452094.ece "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945"]. ''[[The Times]]''. 5 January 2008. Retrieved 3 January 2016.</ref> [[Philip Roth]] said that ''[[A Perfect Spy]]'' (1986) was "the best English novel since the war".<ref name="NYT" />

==Early life and education==
David John Moore Cornwell was born on 19 October 1931 in [[Poole]], Dorset, England, son of<ref name=BBC_obit/><ref name=Guardian_Homberger/> Ronald Thomas Archibald (Ronnie) Cornwell (1905–1975),<ref>[[General Register Office|GRO]] Register of Births: Dec 1905 5a 231 Poole – Ronald Thomas A. Cornwell</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=15 August 2011|title=Why John le Carré's father went to jail (and his links to Dorset)|work=Daily Echo [Bournemouth Echo] |url=https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/9196356.why-le-carres-father-went-to-jail/|access-date=26 October 2022}}</ref> and Olive Moore Cornwell (née Glassey, 1906–1989). His older brother, [[Anthony Cornwell|Tony]] (1929–2017), was an advertising executive and [[county cricket]]er (for Dorset), who later lived in the United States.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Lelyveld|first=Joseph|author-link=Joseph Lelyveld|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/03/21/specials/lecarre-toughest.html|title=Le Carré's Toughest Case|work=[[The New York Times Magazine]]|date=16 March 1986|access-date=30 January 2020|archive-date=28 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181028033818/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/03/21/specials/lecarre-toughest.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last1=Gwinn|first1=Mary Ann|date=25 March 1999|url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19990325&slug=2951363|title=Scoundrels and Sons – Author John Le Carre Digs Deep in His Own Past for the Themes of His Work|work=[[The Seattle Times]]|access-date=30 January 2020|archive-date=14 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201214015939/https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19990325&slug=2951363|url-status=live}}</ref> His younger half-sister was the actress [[Charlotte Cornwell]] (1949–2021), and his younger half-brother, [[Rupert Cornwell]] (1946–2017), was a former [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] bureau chief for ''[[The Independent]]''.<ref name="indy">{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/rupert-cornwell/|work=The Independent|title=Rupert Cornwell|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140910091603/http://www.independent.co.uk/biography/rupert-cornwell|archive-date=10 September 2014|url-status=dead|access-date=2 February 2019}}</ref><ref name="time">{{Cite magazine|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,958645,00.html|title=Espionage: The Perfect Spy Story|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=25 September 1989|access-date=14 December 2020}} {{subscription required}}</ref> Cornwell had little early memory of his mother, who had left their family home when he was five years old. His maternal uncle was [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] MP [[Alec Glassey]].<ref name="scholarlinguist"/> When Cornwell was 21 years old, Glassey gave him the address in Ipswich where his mother was living; mother and son reunited at Ipswich railway station, at her written invitation, following Cornwell's initial letter of reconciliation.<ref name = Brennan/><ref>{{Cite web|last=Lawson|first=Mark|year=2008|title=Mark Lawson Talks to John Le Carre BBC FOUR|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dwcp6|access-date=31 May 2021|website=BBC iPlayer}}</ref>

Cornwell's father – who escaped from his "orthodox but repressive upbringing"<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 April 2011 |title=What does John Le Carre have to hide? |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8422000/What-does-John-Le-Carre-have-to-hide.html |access-date=13 June 2024 |website=The Telegraph |language=en}}</ref> as son of "a respectable nonconformist bricklayer who became a house builder and mayor of Poole"<ref>{{Cite news |last=Homberger |first=Eric |date=14 December 2020 |title=John le Carré obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/14/john-le-carre-obituary |access-date=13 June 2024 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=15 December 2020 |title=Cornwell, David John Moore (h 48) – John le Carré |url=https://oldshirburnian.org.uk/obituaries/cornwell-david-john-moore-h-48-john-le-carre/ |access-date=13 June 2024 |website=The Old Shirburnian Society |language=en-GB}}</ref> – had been jailed for [[insurance fraud]] and was a known associate of the [[Kray twins]]. The family was continually in debt. The father–son relationship has been described as "difficult".<ref name="Brennan">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8422000/What-does-John-Le-Carre-have-to-hide.html |title=What Does John Le Carré Have to Hide?|first=Zoe|last=Brennan|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=2 April 2011|access-date=14 December 2020|archive-date=18 November 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111118040522/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8422000/What-does-John-Le-Carre-have-to-hide.html|url-status=live }}</ref> ''The Guardian'' reported that Le Carré recalled that he had been "beaten up by his father and grew up mostly starved of affection after his mother abandoned him at the age of five".<ref name="Luke"/> Rick Pym, a scheming con man and the father of ''[[A Perfect Spy]]'' protagonist Magnus Pym, was based on Ronnie. When his father died in 1975, Cornwell paid for a memorial funeral service but did not attend, a plot point repeated in ''A Perfect Spy''.<ref name="Brennan"/>

Cornwell's schooling began at [[St Andrew's School, Pangbourne|St Andrew's Preparatory School]], near [[Pangbourne]], Berkshire, and continued at [[Sherborne School]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Cornwell, David John Moore, (John Le Carré), (19 Oct. 1931–12 Dec. 2020), writer|url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-11935|access-date=15 April 2021|website=WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO|language=en|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u11935|isbn=978-0-19-954088-4}}</ref> He grew unhappy with the typically harsh [[English public school]] regime of the time and disliked his disciplinarian housemaster. He left Sherborne early to study foreign languages at the [[University of Bern]] from 1948 to 1949.<ref name="observer">{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2009/nov/01/profile-john-le-carre |title=Observer Profile: John le Carré: A Man of Great Intelligence |work=The Observer |date=1 November 2009 |access-date=4 March 2010 |last=Anthony |first=Andrew |archive-date=18 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170818173635/https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2009/nov/01/profile-john-le-carre |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":0" /> In 1950, he was called up for [[National Service Act 1948|National Service]] and served in the [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence Corps]] of the [[British Army]] garrisoned in [[Allied-occupied Austria]], working as a German language interrogator of people who had crossed the [[Iron Curtain]] to the West. In 1952, he returned to England to study at [[Lincoln College, Oxford]], where he worked covertly for the Security Service, [[MI5]], spying on [[Far-left politics in the United Kingdom|far-left]] groups for information about possible [[History of Soviet espionage|Soviet agents]]. During his studies, he was a member of [[The Gridiron Club (Oxford University)|The Gridiron Club]] and a college dining society known as [[List of University of Oxford dining clubs|The Goblin Club]].<ref name="observer"/>

When his father was declared bankrupt in 1954, Cornwell left Oxford to teach at [[Millfield Preparatory School]];<ref name="scholarlinguist">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/1993/jul/17/crimebooks|title=Scholar, linguist, story-teller, spy...|date=17 July 1993|work=The Guardian|access-date=3 July 2017|archive-date=9 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170909095425/https://www.theguardian.com/books/1993/jul/17/crimebooks|url-status=live}}</ref> however, a year later, he returned to Oxford, and graduated in 1956 with a First-Class degree in Modern Languages with a [[German Literature]] concentration. He then taught French and German at [[Eton College]] for two years, before becoming an MI5 officer in 1958.<ref name=":0" />

==Work in security services==
He ran agents, conducted interrogations, [[tapped telephone]] lines and effected break-ins.<ref name="GartonAsh-TNY-1999-03-12">{{Cite magazine|last=Ash|first=Timothy Garton|author-link=Timothy Garton Ash|date=15 March 1999|title=The Real le Carré|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/03/15/the-real-le-carre|url-status=live|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|volume=75|issue=3|pages=36–45|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201214155114/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/03/15/the-real-le-carre|archive-date=14 December 2020|access-date=14 December 2020}}</ref> Encouraged by [[John Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris|Lord Clanmorris]] (who wrote crime novels as "John Bingham"), and while being an active MI5 officer, Cornwell began writing his first novel, ''[[Call for the Dead]]'' (1961). Cornwell identified Lord Clanmorris as one of two models for [[George Smiley]], the spymaster of the [[Cambridge Circus, London|Circus]], the other being [[Vivian H. H. Green]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1481995/The-Reverend-Vivian-Green.html |title=The Reverend Vivian Green |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=26 January 2005|access-date=4 August 2011 |archive-date=13 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113195545/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1481995/The-Reverend-Vivian-Green.html |url-status=live }}</ref> As a schoolboy, Cornwell first met the latter when Green was the Chaplain and Assistant Master at Sherborne School (1942–51). The friendship continued after Green's move to Lincoln College, where he tutored Cornwell.<ref name="Singh-2011">{{Cite news|last1=Singh|first1=Anita|title=John le Carré: The Real George Smiley Revealed|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8344925/John-le-Carre-the-real-George-Smiley-revealed.html|website=The Daily Telegraph|access-date=3 September 2016|date=24 February 2011|archive-date=22 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160322171542/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8344925/John-le-Carre-the-real-George-Smiley-revealed.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1960, Cornwell transferred to [[MI6]], the foreign-intelligence service, and worked under the cover of Second Secretary at the British Embassy in [[Bonn]]. He was later transferred to [[Hamburg]] as a political [[Consul (representative)|consul]].<ref name=":0" /> There, he wrote the detective story ''[[A Murder of Quality]]'' (1962) and ''[[The Spy Who Came in from the Cold]]'' (1963), as "John le Carré" – a pseudonym required because [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office|Foreign Office]] staff were forbidden to publish under their own names.<ref name="BBC2020">{{cite news |title=John le Carré: Espionage writer dies aged 89 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-55297558 |access-date=14 December 2020 |work=BBC News |date=14 December 2020 |archive-date=13 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201213224356/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-55297558 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Lawless |first1=Jill |title=Master spy writer John le Carre dies at 89 |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/13/world/agent-master-spy-writer-john-le-carre-dies-89/ |website=Boston Globe |publisher=Associated Press |access-date=27 January 2023 |date=13 December 2020 |quote=His first three novels were written while he was a spy, and his employers required him to publish under a pseudonym.}}</ref> The meaning of the pseudonym is ambiguous: he sometimes said he had seen "le Carré" on a storefront, and later said he could not remember an origin.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Adler-Bell |first=Sam |date=13 July 2023 |title=The Essential John le Carré |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/article/john-le-carre-books.html |access-date=4 November 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> When translated, "le carré" means "the square".<ref name=":1" />

In 1964, le Carré's career as an intelligence officer came to an end as the result of the betrayal of British agents' [[Cover (intelligence)|covers]] to the [[KGB]] by [[Kim Philby]], the infamous British [[double agent]], one of the [[Cambridge Five]].<ref name="observer"/><ref name="Plimpton">{{cite journal|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1250/the-art-of-fiction-no-149-john-le-carr|title=John le Carré, The Art of Fiction No. 149|year=1997|last1=Plimpton |first1=George|author-link=George Plimpton| journal=[[The Paris Review]]|volume=143|access-date=14 December 2020|archive-date=15 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160515190035/http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1250/the-art-of-fiction-no-149-john-le-carr|url-status=live}}</ref> Le Carré depicted and analysed Philby as the upper-class traitor, codenamed "Gerald" by the KGB, the [[Mole (espionage)|mole]] hunted by George Smiley in ''[[Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy]]'' (1974).<ref>{{cite news |url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article4823222.ece |title=Then and Now: John le Carre |first=Blake |last=Morrison |work=[[Times Literary Supplement]] |date=11 April 1986|access-date=4 August 2011 |archive-date=14 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201214015916/https://www.the-tls.co.uk/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=Brennan/>

==Writing==
Le Carré's first two novels, ''[[Call for the Dead]]'' (1961) and ''[[A Murder of Quality]]'' (1962), are [[mystery fiction]]. Each features a retired spy, [[George Smiley]], investigating a death; in the first book, the apparent suicide of a suspected communist, and in the second volume, a murder at a boys' [[Public school (United Kingdom)|public school]]. Although ''Call for the Dead'' evolves into an espionage story, Smiley's motives are more personal than political.<ref name="LRB">{{cite journal |last=Tayler |first=Christopher |date=25 January 2007 |title=Belgravia Cockney |journal=[[London Review of Books]]|volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=13–14|url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n02/christopher-tayler/belgravia-cockney |access-date=4 March 2010 |archive-date=30 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100330100639/http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n02/christopher-tayler/belgravia-cockney |url-status=live }}</ref> Le Carré's third novel, ''[[The Spy Who Came in from the Cold]]'' (1963), became an international best-seller and remains one of his best-known works; following its publication, he left MI6 to become a full-time writer. Although le Carré had intended ''The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'' as an indictment of espionage as morally compromised, audiences widely viewed its protagonist, Alec Leamas, as a [[tragic hero]]. In response, le Carré's next book, ''[[The Looking Glass War]]'', was a satire about an increasingly deadly espionage mission which ultimately proves pointless.{{sfn|Manning|2018|pp=78, 90}}<ref>{{Cite news|last=Duns|first=Jeremy|author-link=Jeremy Duns|title=The Looking Glass War review by John le Carré—a classic for our deceitful times|date=17 February 2020|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/the-looking-glass-war-review-by-john-le-carre-hsnmh86j8|work=[[The Times]]|url-access=subscription|access-date=14 December 2020|id={{ProQuest| 2359955748}}|page=17}}</ref>

''[[Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy]]'', ''[[The Honourable Schoolboy]]'' and ''[[Smiley's People]]'' (the [[Karla (character)|Karla]] trilogy) brought Smiley back as the central figure in a sprawling espionage saga depicting his efforts first to root out a mole in the Circus and then to entrap his Soviet rival and counterpart, code-named 'Karla'. The trilogy was originally meant to be a long-running series that would find Smiley dispatching agents after Karla all around the world. ''Smiley's People'' marked the last time Smiley featured as the central character in a le Carré story, although he brought the character back in ''[[The Secret Pilgrim]]''{{sfn|Manning|2018|p=183}} and ''[[A Legacy of Spies]]''.{{sfn|Manning|2018|pp=4–5}}

''[[A Perfect Spy]]'' (1986), which chronicles the boyhood moral education of Magnus Pym and how it leads to his becoming a spy, is the author's most autobiographical espionage novel, reflecting the boy's very close relationship with his [[Confidence trick|con man]] father.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Garner|first=Dwight|author-link=Dwight Garner|date=18 April 2013|title=John le Carré Has Not Mellowed With Age (Published 2013)|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/magazine/john-le-carre-has-not-mellowed-with-age.html|access-date=14 December 2020|archive-date=13 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201213235154/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/magazine/john-le-carre-has-not-mellowed-with-age.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Biographer LynnDianne Beene describes the novelist's own father, Ronnie Cornwell, as "an epic con man of little education, immense charm, extravagant tastes, but no social values".{{sfn|Beene|1992|p=2}}<ref name=BBC_obit>{{Cite news|date=13 December 2020|title=Obituary: John le Carré|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-19888446|access-date=14 December 2020|archive-date=14 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201214004235/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-19888446|url-status=live}}</ref> Le Carré reflected that "writing ''A Perfect Spy'' is probably what a very wise shrink would have advised".<ref>{{Cite web|last=[[Agence France-Presse]]|title=John Le Carre Novels: A Selection|url=https://www.barrons.com/news/john-le-carre-novels-a-selection-01607902504|access-date=14 December 2020|website=[[Barron's (newspaper)|Barron's]]|language=en-US|archive-date=14 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201214155124/https://www.barrons.com/news/john-le-carre-novels-a-selection-01607902504|url-status=live}}</ref> He also wrote a semi-autobiographical work, ''[[The Naïve and Sentimental Lover]]'' (1971), as the story of a man's midlife existential crisis.{{sfn|Cobbs|1998|p=83}}
[[File:John le Carré - La Casa Russia (The Russia House) - Mondadori 1989.jpg|thumb|Italian cover of ''The Russia House'' (1989)]]
With the fall of the [[Iron Curtain]] in 1989, le Carré's writing shifted to the portrayal of the new multilateral world. His first completely [[Post–Cold War era|post-Cold War]] novel, ''[[The Night Manager]]'' (1993), deals with drug and arms smuggling in the world of Latin American [[drug lord]]s, secretive Caribbean banking entities and corrupt Western officials.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Petski|first1=Denise|date=5 March 2015|title=Olivia Colman, Tom Hollander, Elizabeth Debicki Join AMC's ''The Night Manager''|url=https://deadline.com/2015/03/olivia-colman-tom-hollander-elizabeth-debicki-join-amcs-the-night-manager-1201386653/|access-date=14 December 2020|website=[[Deadline Hollywood]]|archive-date=8 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200808235423/https://deadline.com/2015/03/olivia-colman-tom-hollander-elizabeth-debicki-join-amcs-the-night-manager-1201386653/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=19 February 2016|title=''The Night Manager'': le Carré's 'unexpected miracle'|work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/02/19/the-night-manager-le-carres-unexpected-miracle/|access-date=14 December 2020|archive-date=29 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029182807/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/02/19/the-night-manager-le-carres-unexpected-miracle/|url-status=live}}</ref>

His final novel, ''[[Silverview]]'', was published posthumously in 2021.

===Themes===
Most of le Carré's books are [[spy fiction|spy stories]] set during the [[Cold War]] (1945–91) and portray [[British Intelligence]] agents as unheroic political functionaries, aware of the moral ambiguity of their work and engaged more in psychological than physical drama.<ref name="contwriters">{{cite web |url=http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth519CDD2E13c091C28FvXuS365E36 |title=Contemporary Writers |year=2006 |publisher=British Council |access-date=4 March 2010 |last=Holcombe |first=Garan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604142420/http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth519CDD2E13c091C28FvXuS365E36 |archive-date=4 June 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> While "[espionage] was the genre that earned him fame...he used it as a platform to explore larger ethical problems and the human condition". The insight he demonstrated led "many fellow authors and critics [to regard] him as one of the finest English-language novelists of the twentieth century."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Barber |first=Tony |date=14 December 2020 |title=John le Carré, author, 1931–2020 |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/ca8b1c8c-91aa-4fe3-97db-ebec68085877 |access-date=26 October 2022}}</ref> His writing explores "human frailty—moral ambiguity, intrigue, nuance, doubt, and cowardice".<ref name="FP">{{Cite journal |last=Walton |first=Calder |date=26 December 2020 |title=What Spies Really Think About John le Carré |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/12/26/what-spies-really-think-about-john-le-carre/ |journal=Foreign Policy}}</ref>

The fallibility of [[Liberal democracy|Western democracy]] – and of its secret services – is a recurring theme, as are suggestions of a possible east–west moral equivalence.<ref name="contwriters"/> Characters experience little of the violence typically encountered in [[action thriller]]s and have very little recourse to gadgets. Much of the conflict is internal, rather than external and visible.<ref name="contwriters"/> The recurring character George Smiley, who plays a central role in five novels and appears as a supporting character in four more, was written as an "antidote" to [[James Bond]], a character le Carré called "an international [[gangster]]" rather than a spy and who he felt should be excluded from the canon of espionage literature.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/jamesbond/7948363/James-Bond-was-a-neo-fascist-gangster-says-John-Le-Carre.html|title=James Bond was a neo-fascist gangster, says John Le Carré|first=Anita|last=Singh|date=17 August 2010|work=The Telegraph|access-date=3 April 2018|archive-date=4 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180404131630/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/jamesbond/7948363/James-Bond-was-a-neo-fascist-gangster-says-John-Le-Carre.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In contrast, he intended Smiley, who is an overweight, [[bespectacled]] bureaucrat who uses cunning and manipulation to achieve his ends, as an accurate depiction of a spy.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/12/the-antijames-bond/308708/|title=The Anti–James Bond|first=James|last=Parker|date=26 October 2011|access-date=3 April 2018|archive-date=29 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180629155126/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/12/the-antijames-bond/308708/|url-status=live|website=[[The Atlantic]]}}</ref>

Le Carré's "writing entered intelligence services themselves. He popularized the term 'mole'...and other language that has become intelligence vernacular on both sides of the Atlantic – 'honeytrap', 'scalphunter', 'lamplighter' to name a few."<ref name="FP" /> However, in his first tweet as MI6's chief, [[Richard Moore (diplomat)|Richard Moore]] revealed the agency's "complicated relationship with the author: He urged would-be Smileys not to apply to the service."<ref name="FP" />

===Other writing, film cameos===
Le Carré records a number of incidents from his period as a diplomat in his autobiographical work, ''[[The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life]]'' (2016), which include escorting six visiting German parliamentarians to a London brothel<ref>{{cite book|first=John|last=le Carré|chapter=Official visit|title=The Pigeon Tunnel. Stories from My Life|isbn=978-0-241-97687-6|year=2016|publisher=Viking }}</ref> and translating at a meeting between a senior German politician and [[Harold Macmillan]].<ref>{{cite book|first=John|last=le Carré|title=The Pigeon Tunnel. Stories from My Life|chapter=Fingers on the trigger|isbn=978-0-241-97687-6|year=2016|publisher=Penguin Books Limited |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CSuvCgAAQBAJ&q=harold+macmillan|access-date=14 December 2020|archive-date=14 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201214155126/https://books.google.com/books?id=CSuvCgAAQBAJ&q=harold+macmillan|url-status=live}}</ref>

As a journalist, le Carré wrote ''The Unbearable Peace'' (1991), a nonfiction account of Brigadier [[Jean-Louis Jeanmaire]] (1911–1992), the [[Swiss Armed Forces|Swiss Army]] officer, who spied for the Soviet Union from 1962 until 1975.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://granta.com/the-unbearable-peace/ |title=The Unbearable Peace |journal=Granta |first=Sigrid |last=Rausing |author-link=Sigrid Rausing |access-date=4 March 2010 |archive-date=27 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927180843/http://granta.com/the-unbearable-peace/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Credited under his pen name, le Carré appears as an extra in the 2011 [[Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (film)|film version]] of ''[[Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy]]'', among the guests at the Christmas party in several flashback scenes. He also appears, in uncredited cameo roles, as a museum usher in ''[[Our Kind of Traitor (film)|Our Kind of Traitor]]''  2016, and in the [[BBC]] TV production ''[[The Night Manager (British TV series)|The Night Manager]]'' (2016), as a restaurant diner.

==Politics==
===Threats to democracy===
In 2017, le Carré expressed concerns over the future of [[liberal democracy]], saying: "I think of all things that were happening across Europe in the 1930s, in Spain, in Japan, obviously in Germany. To me, these are absolutely comparable signs of the rise of [[fascism]] and it's contagious, it's infectious. Fascism is up and running in Poland and Hungary. There's an encouragement about".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Brown|first=Mark|date=7 September 2017|title=John le Carré on Trump: 'Something seriously bad is happening'|work=[[The Guardian]]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/07/john-le-carre-on-trump-something-truly-seriously-bad-is-happening|access-date=8 September 2017|archive-date=7 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170907235916/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/07/john-le-carre-on-trump-something-truly-seriously-bad-is-happening|url-status=live}}</ref> He later wrote that the end of the Cold War had left the West without a coherent ideology, in contrast to the "notion of [[individual freedom]], of inclusiveness, of tolerance – all of that we called [[anti-communism]]" prevailing during that time.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Novelist John Le Carré Reflects On His Own 'Legacy' Of Spying|publisher=NPR|url=https://www.npr.org/2017/12/28/572625559/novelist-john-le-carr-reflects-on-his-own-legacy-of-spying|access-date=14 December 2020|language=en|archive-date=18 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200918142937/https://www.npr.org/2017/12/28/572625559/novelist-john-le-carr-reflects-on-his-own-legacy-of-spying|url-status=live}}</ref>

Le Carré opposed both U.S. President [[Donald Trump]] and Russian President [[Vladimir Putin]], arguing that their desire to seek or maintain their countries' superpower status caused an impulse "for [[oligarchy]], the dismissal of the truth, the contempt, actually, for the electorate and for the [[democratic system]]".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Scott|first=Simon|title=John Le Carré Fears For The Future In 'Agent Running In The Field'|date=19 October 2019|url=https://www.npr.org/2019/10/19/771089425/john-le-carr-fears-for-the-future-in-agent-running-in-the-field|access-date=13 December 2020|publisher=[[NPR]]|language=en|archive-date=1 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701165533/https://www.npr.org/2019/10/19/771089425/john-le-carr-fears-for-the-future-in-agent-running-in-the-field|url-status=live}}</ref> Le Carré compared Trump's tendency to dismiss the media as "[[fake news]]" to the [[Nazi book burnings]], and wrote that the United States is "heading straight down the road to [[institutional racism]] and [[neo-fascism]]".<ref>{{Cite web|date=7 September 2017|title=John le Carré on Trump: 'Something seriously bad is happening'|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/07/john-le-carre-on-trump-something-truly-seriously-bad-is-happening|access-date=13 December 2020|website=The Guardian|language=en|archive-date=6 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201206171537/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/07/john-le-carre-on-trump-something-truly-seriously-bad-is-happening|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":02">{{Cite news|last1=Banville|first1=John|author-link1=John Banville|last2=le Carré|first2=John|date=11 October 2019|title='My ties to England have loosened': John le Carré on Britain, Boris and Brexit|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/11/john-le-carre-truth-was-what-you-got-away-with|access-date=13 December 2020|work=[[The Guardian]]|language=en|archive-date=13 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201213233913/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/11/john-le-carre-truth-was-what-you-got-away-with|url-status=live}}</ref>

In le Carré's 2019 novel ''[[Agent Running in the Field]]'', one of the novel's characters refers to Trump as "Putin's shithouse cleaner" who "does everything for little Vladi that little Vladi can't do for himself". The novel's narrator describes [[Boris Johnson]] as "a pig-ignorant foreign secretary". He says Russia is moving "backwards into her dark, delusional past", with Britain following a short way behind.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Gilbert|first=Sophie|date=26 October 2019|title=John le Carré's Scathing Tale of Brexit Britain|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/10/john-le-carre-agent-running-in-the-field-review/600631/|access-date=14 December 2020|website=[[The Atlantic]]|language=en-US}}</ref> Le Carré later said that he believed the novel's plotline, involving the U.S. and British intelligence services [[colluding]] to subvert the [[European Union]], to be "horribly possible".<ref name=":02" />

===Brexit===
Le Carré was an outspoken advocate of [[European integration]] and sharply criticised [[Brexit]].<ref>{{Cite news|last=Carré|first=John le|date=1 February 2020|title=John le Carré on Brexit: 'It's breaking my heart'|work=[[The Guardian]]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/feb/01/john-le-carre-breaking-heart-brexit|access-date=5 February 2020|archive-date=4 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200204165247/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/feb/01/john-le-carre-breaking-heart-brexit|url-status=live}}</ref> He criticised Brexit advocates such as [[Boris Johnson]] (whom he referred to as a "mob orator"), [[Dominic Cummings]] and [[Nigel Farage]] in interviews, claiming that their "task is to fire up the people with nostalgia [and] with anger". Le Carré further opined that: "What really scares me about nostalgia is that it's become a political weapon. Politicians are creating a nostalgia for an England that never existed, and selling it, really, as something we could return to", adding that with "the demise of the working class we saw also the demise of an established social order, based on the stability of ancient class structures".<ref name=":02" /><ref>{{Cite news|date=14 October 2019|title=John le Carré: 'Politicians love chaos – it gives them authority'|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-50012504|access-date=13 December 2020|archive-date=19 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201119014620/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-50012504|url-status=live}}</ref> On the other hand, he claimed that the UK [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] has "this [[Leninism|Leninist]] element and they have this huge appetite to level society."<ref name="John le Carré on Corbyn">{{cite news |last1=John |first1=Banville |title=Interview: 'My ties to England have loosened': John le Carré on Britain, Boris and Brexit |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/11/john-le-carre-truth-was-what-you-got-away-with |access-date=15 July 2022 |work=The Guardian |date=11 October 2019 }}</ref>

Le Carré once compared Brexit to the 1956 [[Suez Crisis]], stating that it was "without doubt the greatest catastrophe and the greatest idiocy that Britain has perpetrated since the invasion of [[Suez]]... The idea, to me, that at the moment we should imagine we can substitute access to the biggest trade union in the world with access to the American market is terrifying", he said.<ref name=otoole/><ref name=rte/><ref name=sands/> Speaking to ''[[The Guardian]]'' in 2019, he commented: "I've always believed, though ironically it's not the way I've voted, that it's [[compassionate conservatism]] that in the end could, for example, integrate the private schooling system. If you do it from the left you will seem to be acting out of resentment; do it from the right and it looks like good social organisation." Le Carré also said: "I think my own ties to England were hugely loosened over the last few years. And it's a kind of liberation, if a sad kind."<ref name=":02" />

===US invasion of Iraq===
In January 2003, two months prior to the invasion, ''[[The Times]]'' published le Carré's essay "The United States Has Gone Mad" criticising the buildup to the [[Iraq War]] and President [[George W. Bush]]'s response to the [[September 11 attacks|11 September 2001 terrorist attacks]], calling it "worse than [[McCarthyism]], worse than the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion|Bay of Pigs]] and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the [[Vietnam War]]" and "beyond anything [[Osama bin Laden]] could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams".<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Meier|first1=Andrew|title=Coming in from the Cold|url=https://www.bookforum.com/print/2304/the-many-masks-of-ex-spy-and-novelist-john-le-carre-16789|access-date=15 December 2020|website=[[Bookforum]]|date=January 2017|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=le Carré |first=John |title=Opinion: The United States of America has gone mad |url=http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0115-01.htm |access-date=8 February 2011 |newspaper=[[The Sunday Times]] |date=15 January 2003 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204033616/http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0115-01.htm |archive-date=4 December 2010 }}</ref> Le Carré participated in the London [[protests against the Iraq War]]. He said the war resulted from the "politicisation of intelligence to fit the political intentions" of governments and "How Bush and his junta succeeded in deflecting America's anger from bin Laden to [[Saddam Hussein]] is one of the great public relations conjuring tricks of history".<ref name="dn111010">{{cite web |title=Exclusive: British Novelist John le Carré on the Iraq War, Corporate Power, the Exploitation of Africa and His New Novel, "Our Kind of Traitor" |url=https://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/11/exclusive_british_novelist_john_le_carr |website=Democracy Now! |access-date=17 December 2020 |language=en |date=11 October 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=John le Carré, Iraq War Critic and Legendary Author of Spy Novels, Dies at 89 |url=https://www.democracynow.org/2020/12/14/headlines/john_le_carre_iraq_war_critic_and_legendary_author_of_spy_novels_dies_at_89 |website=Democracy Now! |access-date=17 December 2020 |language=en |date=14 December 2020}}</ref>

He was critical of [[Tony Blair]]'s role in taking Britain into the Iraq War, saying: "I can't understand that Blair has an afterlife at all. It seems to me that any politician who takes his country to war under false pretences has committed the ultimate sin. I think that a war in which we refuse to accept the body count of those that we kill is also a war of which we should be ashamed."<ref name="dn111010"/>

===Iran===
Le Carré was critical of Western governments' policies towards Iran. He said that Iran's actions are a response to being "encircled by nuclear powers" and by the way in which "we ousted [[Mohammad Mosaddegh|Mosaddeq]] through [[1953 Iranian coup d'état|the CIA and the Secret Service here across the way]] and installed the [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi|Shah]] and trained his ghastly secret police force in all the black arts, the [[SAVAK]]".<ref name="dn111010"/>

Le Carré feuded with [[Salman Rushdie]] over ''[[The Satanic Verses]]'', stating: "Nobody has a God-given right to insult a great religion and be published with impunity".<ref>{{cite news|title=The spy who came in from the cold|url=https://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21677181-secretive-life-becomes-open-book-spy-who-came-cold|access-date=30 October 2015|newspaper=[[The Economist]]|date=30 October 2015|archive-date=30 October 2015|url-access=registration|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151030023357/http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21677181-secretive-life-becomes-open-book-spy-who-came-cold|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Israel and Palestine===
While researching ''The Little Drummer Girl'', le Carré travelled through the region – including Lebanon – where he met [[Yasser Arafat]]. He recounts:<blockquote>“I have come … to put my hand on the Palestinian heart.” Arafat then seized le Carré’s hand, placing it on his chest. This experience enabled him to see the Palestinians as victims with legitimate claims, and not as merely terrorists.<ref name="Levick">{{Cite web |last=Levick |first=Adam |date=2020-12-14 |title=Guardian misleads on John Le Carré and accusations of antisemitism |url=https://camera-uk.org/2020/12/14/guardian-misleads-on-john-le-carre-and-accusations-of-antisemitism/ |access-date=2025-08-30 |website=CAMERA UK |language=en-US}}</ref></blockquote>In a 1998 interview with Douglas Davis, Le Carré described Israel as "the most extraordinary carnival of human variety that I have ever set eyes on, a nation in the process of re-assembling itself from the shards of its past, now Oriental, now Western, now secular, now religious, but always anxiously moralizing about itself, criticizing itself with Maoist ferocity, a nation crackling with debate, rediscovering its past while it fought for its future." He declared: "No nation on earth was more deserving of peace—or more condemned to fight for it."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Le Carré: 'Extraordinary' Israel, 'crackling with debate, rocked me to my boots'|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/le-carre-israel-rocked-me-to-my-boots/|access-date=11 May 2021|website=[[The Times of Israel]] |date=14 December 2020}}</ref>

In 2003, Le Carré criticized how [[Neoconservatism|neo-conservative]] influences and the [[Israel lobby in the United States|Israel lobby]] shaped U.S. Middle East policy, implying that such manipulation fed continuous conflict. He said the novel was intended to show:<blockquote>"… neo-conservative group which is commanding the political high ground, calling the shots and appointing the State of Israel as the purpose of all Middle Eastern and practically all global policy." This frames Israel – not necessarily the nation, but its political positioning – as central to escalatory foreign policy trends fuelling instability.<ref name="Levick"/></blockquote>Le Carré emphasized both empathy and support:<blockquote>“I stood – and stand – wholeheartedly behind the nation-state of Israel … And wholeheartedly behind the peace process as the guarantor not only of Israel’s survival, but of the [[Palestinians|Palestinian]] survival also.”<ref>{{Cite news |last=Staff |first=ToI |date=2020-12-14 |title=Le Carre: 'Extraordinary' Israel, 'crackling with debate, rocked me to my boots' |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/le-carre-israel-rocked-me-to-my-boots/ |access-date=2025-08-30 |work=The Times of Israel |language=en-US |issn=0040-7909}}</ref></blockquote>

==Personal life==
In 1954, Cornwell married Alison Ann Veronica Sharp. They had three sons.<ref name=Guardian_Homberger>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/14/john-le-carre-obituary|title=John le Carré obituary|last1=Homberger|first1=Eric|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=14 December 2020|access-date=14 December 2020|archive-date=14 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201214022605/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/14/john-le-carre-obituary|url-status=live }}</ref> they divorced in 1971.<ref name="debretts1">{{Cite book|editor-last=Sefton|editor-first=Daniel|title=Debrett's People of Today|year=2007|publisher=[[Debrett's]]|isbn=978-1-870520-95-9|oclc=764415351|page=[[iarchive:debrettspeopleof0000seft/page/973/mode/1up|973]]|url=https://archive.org/details/debrettspeopleof0000seft|url-access=registration}}</ref> In 1972, Cornwell married [[Jane Cornwell|Valerie Jane Eustace]], a book editor with [[Hodder & Stoughton]]<ref name="telegraph1">{{cite news |title=Le Carré pays tribute to his first love |first=Tim |last=Walker |editor-first=Richard |editor-last=Eden |date=5 June 2009 |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/5446015/John-le-Carre-pays-tribute-to-his-first-love.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/5446015/John-le-Carre-pays-tribute-to-his-first-love.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live }}{{cbignore}}</ref> who collaborated with him behind the scenes.<ref name=Nick2021>{{cite news |vauthors=Cornwell N |author-link=Nick Harkaway |title=My father was famous as John le Carré. My mother was his crucial, covert collaborator |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/13/my-father-was-famous-as-john-le-carre-my-mother-was-his-crucial-covert-collaborator |work=The Guardian |date=13 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210313131436/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/13/my-father-was-famous-as-john-le-carre-my-mother-was-his-crucial-covert-collaborator |archive-date=13 March 2021 |language=en |url-status=live| quote=...[[Richard Ovenden]], who examined the papers [le Carré] loaned to the Bodleian Library in Oxford... observed a "deep process of collaboration". His analysis is a perfect match for my recollection: "A rhythm of working together that was incredibly efficient … a kind of cadence from manuscript, to typescript, to annotated and amended typescripts … with scissors and staplers being brought to bear … getting closer and closer to the final published version."}}</ref> They had a son, Nicholas, who writes as [[Nick Harkaway]].<ref name="independent1">{{cite news |title=Written in his stars: son of Le Carré gets £300,000 for first novel |first=Ian |last=Herbert |date=6 June 2007 |work=[[The Independent]] |id={{ProQuest|311318983}} }}</ref> Le Carré lived in [[St Buryan]], Cornwall, for more than 40&nbsp;years; he owned a mile of cliff near [[Land's End]].<ref name="guardian1">{{Cite news|last=Gibbs|first=Geoffrey|date=24 July 1999|title=Spy writer fights for clifftop paradise|work=[[The Guardian]]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jul/24/geoffreygibbs|access-date=16 October 2022}}</ref> The house, Tregiffian Cottage, was put up for sale in 2023 for £3 million.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Vergnault |first1=Olivier |title=House of world-famous spy novelist John le Carré is up for sale |url=https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/house-world-famous-spy-novelist-8745316 |website=Cornwall Live |date=16 September 2023 |access-date=22 September 2023}}</ref> Le Carré also owned a house in [[Gainsborough Gardens]] in Hampstead in north London.<ref name="Times21">{{cite news |author=[[Hunter Davies]] |date=15 January 2021 |title=John Le Carré was my friend, or so I thought |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/john-le-carre-was-my-friend-or-so-i-thought-kf7jnr6xh |url-access=subscription |access-date=21 June 2021 |work=[[The Times]]}}</ref><ref name=CNJ21>{{cite news |url=http://camdennewjournal.com/article/smileys-back-with-a-heady-cocktail |title=Smiley's back with a heady cocktail |author=Gerald Isaaman |date=29 September 2017 |work=[[Camden New Journal]] |access-date=21 June 2021}}</ref>

Le Carré was so disillusioned by the 2016 [[Brexit]] vote to leave the [[European Union]] that he secured Irish citizenship. In a [[BBC]] documentary broadcast in 2021, le Carré's son Nicholas revealed that his father's disillusionment with modern Britain, and Brexit in particular, had driven him to embrace his Irish heritage and become an Irish citizen. At the time of his death, le Carré's friend, the novelist [[John Banville]], confirmed that the writer had researched his family roots in Inchinattin, near [[Rosscarbery]], County Cork, and that he had applied for an Irish passport, to which he was entitled having completed the process of becoming an Irish citizen and having Irish ancestry through his maternal grandmother, Olive Wolfe.<ref name=otoole>{{cite news |last1=O'Toole |first1=Fintan |title=John le Carré 'died an Irishman' after gaining citizenship, son says |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/john-le-carr%C3%A9-died-an-irishman-after-gaining-citizenship-son-says-1.4525265 |access-date=1 April 2021 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=1 April 2021}}</ref><ref name=rte>{{cite news |title=John Le Carré got Irish citizenship following Brexit vote |url=https://www.rte.ie/news/2021/0401/1207388-john-le-carre/ |access-date=1 April 2021 |publisher=Raidió Teilifís Éireann |date=1 April 2021}}</ref><ref name=sands>{{cite news |last1=Sands |first1=Philippe |title=Why my friend John le Carré, chronicler of the English, died an Irish citizen |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/why-my-friend-john-le-carre-chronicler-of-the-english-died-an-irish-citizen-0t03wv3s7 |access-date=1 April 2021 |work=[[The Times]] |date=1 April 2021}}</ref> His neighbour and friend [[Philippe Sands]] recalled: 
{{Blockquote|text=He became an Irishman through his maternal grandmother. And it was very, very moving, I have to say, to arrive at the place of the memorial to find an Irish flag and only an Irish flag. He had really in the last years, grown very disillusioned with what had happened to Britain and the United Kingdom.<ref name="Sands">{{Cite web |last=Bremner |first=Rory |title=Hiding in Plain Site |url=https://spyscape.com/podcast/hiding-in-plain-sight?_gl=1*14tid9d*_ga*MTA0NDQ0NzE2OS4xNjY2NzcxNTIw*_ga_FTJEV3N42V*MTY2Njc3MTUyMC4xLjEuMTY2Njc3MTU5Ny41NC4wLjA.&_ga=2.23691642.1965969961.1666771523-1044447169.1666771520|access-date=26 October 2022 |website=The Spying Game}}</ref>}}

Le Carré died at [[Royal Cornwall Hospital]], [[Truro]], on 12 December 2020, aged 89.<ref name="guardianobit">{{cite news |last1=Lea |first1=Richard |last2=Cain |first2=Sian |date=13 December 2020 |title=John le Carré, author of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, dies aged 89 |language=en |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/13/john-le-carre-author-of-tinker-tailor-soldier-spy-dies-aged-89 |url-status=live |access-date=13 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201213222501/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/13/john-le-carre-author-of-tinker-tailor-soldier-spy-dies-aged-89 |archive-date=13 December 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=13 December 2020 |title=John le Carré: Cold War novelist dies aged 89 |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-55297558 |url-status=live |access-date=13 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201213224356/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-55297558 |archive-date=13 December 2020}}</ref> An inquest completed in June 2021 concluded that le Carré died after sustaining a fall at his home.<ref>{{cite news |url = https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/world-famous-author-john-le-5531470 |title = World famous author John le Carré died after falling at his home in Cornwall |work = [[Cornwall Live]] |date = 15 June 2021 |access-date = 15 June 2021}}</ref> His wife Valerie died on 27 February 2021, two months after her husband, at age 82.<ref>{{cite news|author1=Saunders E.|author2=Becquart, C.|title=John le Carré's wife Valerie Jane has died |url=https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/john-le-carrs-widow-valerie-5081842|work=[[Cornwall Live]]|date=7 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210307094721/https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/john-le-carrs-widow-valerie-5081842 |archive-date=7 March 2021 |language=en |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2023, biographer [[Adam Sisman]] in ''The Secret Life of John le Carré'' identified 11 women with whom le Carré had affairs during his second marriage.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Fesperman |first=Dan |date=23 October 2023 |title=How John le Carré's serial adultery shaped his spy novels |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/10/23/secret-life-john-le-carre-adam-sisman-review/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=23 October 2023 |newspaper=Washington Post}}</ref>

Le Carré's son Timothy died on 31 May 2022 at the age of 59, shortly after he finished editing ''A Private Spy'', a collection of his father's letters.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2022/news/son-of-famous-novelist-who-became-arts-journalist-dies-aged-59/|title=Son of famous novelist who became arts journalist dies aged 59|author=Paul Linford|date=9 June 2022|access-date=31 October 2022|website=holdthefrontpage.co.uk}}</ref>

==Selected bibliography==
{{Main|John le Carré bibliography}}

===Novels===
* ''[[Call for the Dead]]'' (1961), {{oclc|751303381}}
* ''[[A Murder of Quality]]'' (1962), {{oclc|777015390}}
* ''[[The Spy Who Came in from the Cold]]'' (1963), {{oclc|561198531}}
* ''[[The Looking Glass War]]'' (1965), {{oclc|752987890}}
* ''[[A Small Town in Germany]]'' (1968), {{ISBN|0-143-12260-6}}
* ''[[The Naïve and Sentimental Lover]]'' (1971), {{ISBN|0-143-11975-3}}
* [[Smiley Versus Karla]] trilogy
** ''[[Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy]]'' (1974), {{ISBN|0-143-12093-X}}
** ''[[The Honourable Schoolboy]]'' (1977), {{ISBN|0-143-11973-7}}
** ''[[Smiley's People]]'' (1979), {{ISBN|0-340-99439-8}}
* ''[[The Little Drummer Girl]]'' (1983), {{ISBN|0-143-11974-5}}
* ''[[A Perfect Spy]]'' (1986), {{ISBN|0-143-11976-1}}
* ''[[The Russia House]]'' (1989), {{ISBN|0-743-46466-4}}
* ''[[The Secret Pilgrim]]'' (1990), {{ISBN|0-345-50442-9}}
* ''[[The Night Manager]]'' (1993), {{ISBN|0-345-38576-4}}
* ''[[Our Game]]'' (1995), {{ISBN|0-345-40000-3}}
* ''[[The Tailor of Panama]]'' (1996), {{ISBN|0-345-42043-8}}
* ''[[Single & Single]]'' (1999), {{ISBN|0-743-45806-0}}
* ''[[The Constant Gardener]]'' (2001), {{ISBN|0-743-28720-7}}
* ''[[Absolute Friends]]'' (2003), {{ISBN|0-670-04489-X}}
* ''[[The Mission Song]]'' (2006), {{ISBN|0-340-92199-4}}
* ''[[A Most Wanted Man]]'' (2008), {{ISBN|1-416-59609-7}}
* ''[[Our Kind of Traitor (novel)|Our Kind of Traitor]]'' (2010), {{ISBN|0-143-11972-9}}
* ''[[A Delicate Truth]]'' (2013), {{ISBN|0-143-12531-1}}
* ''[[A Legacy of Spies]]'' (2017), {{ISBN|978-0-735-22511-4}}<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/07/george-smiley-to-return-new-john-le-carre-novel-a-legacy-of-spies|title=George Smiley to return in new John le Carré novel, A Legacy of Spies|first=Danuta|last=Kean|date=7 March 2017|work=The Guardian|access-date=8 March 2017|archive-date=8 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170308095326/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/07/george-smiley-to-return-new-john-le-carre-novel-a-legacy-of-spies|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''[[Agent Running in the Field]]'' (2019), {{ISBN|1984878875}}
* ''[[Silverview]]'' (2021), {{ISBN|9780241550069}}<ref>{{Cite news|title=John le Carré Fans Are Getting One More Novel|last=Harris|first=Elizabeth A.|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=19 May 2021|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/19/books/john-le-carre-silverview.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519233838/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/19/books/john-le-carre-silverview.html |archive-date=19 May 2021 }}</ref>

==Archive==
In 2010, le Carré donated his literary archive to the [[Bodleian Library]], Oxford. The initial 85 boxes of material deposited included handwritten drafts of ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' and ''The Constant Gardener''. The library hosted a public display of these and other items to mark [[World Book Day]] in March 2011.<ref name="archive">{{cite news|last1=Sellgren|first1=Katherine|date=24 February 2011|title=John le Carré donates archive to Bodleian Library|work=BBC News|access-date=13 May 2013 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12550875|archive-date=8 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141008035022/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12550875 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="blarchive">{{cite news|last1=Higgins|first1=Charlotte|date=23 February 2011|title=John le Carré gives his literary archive to Oxford's Bodleian Library |work=The Guardian |access-date=13 May 2013|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/23/john-le-carre-archive-bodleian|archive-date=4 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204061319/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/23/john-le-carre-archive-bodleian|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Awards and honours==
* 1963, [[Crime Writers' Association|British Crime Writers' Association]] [[Gold Dagger]] for ''[[The Spy Who Came in from the Cold]]''<ref name="CWA4">{{cite news |url=http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/gold.html |publisher=[[Crime Writers' Association]]|title=The CWA Gold Dagger |date=5 July 2012 |access-date=8 January 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120114091850/http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/gold.html |archive-date=14 January 2012}}</ref>
* 1964, [[Somerset Maugham Award]] for ''The Spy Who Came in from the Cold''<ref>{{Cite web|title=Society of Authors' Awards|date=8 May 2020 |url=https://www.societyofauthors.org/Prizes/Society-of-Authors-Awards/Somerset-Maugham/Past-winners|access-date=13 December 2020|publisher=[[Society of Authors]]|archive-date=1 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001132050/https://www.societyofauthors.org/Prizes/Society-of-Authors-Awards/Somerset-Maugham/Past-winners|url-status=live}}</ref>
* 1965, [[Mystery Writers of America]] [[Edgar Award]] for ''The Spy Who Came in from the Cold''<ref name="edgar"/>
* 1977, British Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for ''[[The Honourable Schoolboy]]''<ref name="CWA4"/>
* 1977, [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] Fiction Award for ''The Honourable Schoolboy''<ref>{{cite web |title=Fiction winners |url=https://www.ed.ac.uk/events/james-tait-black/winners/fiction |publisher=[[University of Edinburgh]] |access-date=14 December 2020 |archive-date=4 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201104135357/https://www.ed.ac.uk/events/james-tait-black/winners/fiction |url-status=live }}</ref>
* 1983, [[Japan Adventure Fiction Association Prize]] for ''[[The Little Drummer Girl]]''<ref>{{cite web |title=日本冒険小説協会大賞リスト |language=ja |trans-title=Japan Adventure Fiction Association Grand Prize List |url=http://www.jade.dti.ne.jp/~gaby/jafa/index2.html |website=jade.dti.ne.jp |access-date=14 December 2020 |archive-date=28 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170528094735/http://www.jade.dti.ne.jp/~gaby/jafa/index2.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
* 1984, [[Honorary Fellow]] [[Lincoln College, Oxford]]<ref name="debretts1"/>
* 1984, Mystery Writers of America Edgar Grand Master<ref name="edgar">{{cite news |url=http://www.theedgars.com/edgarsDB/index.php |publisher=Mystery Writers of America |title=The Edgar Database |access-date=10 March 2013 |archive-date=28 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120828005743/http://www.theedgars.com/edgarsDB/index.php |url-status=live }}</ref>
* 1988, Crime Writers' Association [[Diamond Dagger]] Lifetime Achievement Award<ref name="CWA2">{{cite news|url=http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/cartier.html |publisher=[[Crime Writers' Association]]|title=The Cartier Diamond Dagger |date=5 July 2012 |access-date=7 January 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121203195758/http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/cartier.html |archive-date= 3 December 2012 }}</ref>
* 1988, The [[Premio Malaparte|Malaparte Prize]], Italy<ref name="debretts1"/>
* 1990, Honorary degree, [[University of Exeter]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.exeter.ac.uk/honorarygraduates/previous/#DLitt|title=Previous honorary graduates|publisher=[[University of Exeter]]|access-date=6 March 2013|archive-date=21 February 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130221083744/http://www.exeter.ac.uk/honorarygraduates/previous/#DLitt|url-status=live}}</ref>
* 1990, [[Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award|Helmerich Award]] of the [[Tulsa City-County Library|Tulsa Library Trust]].<ref name="PVH">{{cite web |url=http://www.helmerichaward.org/winners/1990_john-le-carre.php |title=Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award |publisher=Tulsa Library Trust |year=1990 |access-date=11 February 2012 |archive-date=24 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224040737/http://www.helmerichaward.org/winners/1990_john-le-carre.php |url-status=live }}</ref>
<!-- No sources available; reintroduce if a source is found. * 1991, Nikos Kazantzakis prize{{citation needed|date=December 2016}} -->
* 1996, Honorary degree, [[University of St. Andrews]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://docs.google.com/viewer?pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh|title=Honorary Graduates|publisher=[[St Andrews University]]|access-date=6 March 2013|archive-date=13 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413025746/https://docs.google.com/viewer?pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh|url-status=live}}</ref>
* 1997, Honorary degree, [[University of Southampton]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.southampton.ac.uk/aboutus/honorary_graduates/honorary_graduates_earlier_years.shtml |publisher=University of Southampton |title=Honorary Graduates of Earlier Years |access-date=6 March 2013 |archive-date=7 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207054346/http://www.southampton.ac.uk/aboutus/honorary_graduates/honorary_graduates_earlier_years.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>
* 1998, Honorary degree, [[University of Bath]]<ref name="BATHU">{{cite web|url=http://www.bath.ac.uk/ceremonies/hongrads/|title=Honorary Graduates 1989 to Present|work=bath.ac.uk|publisher=[[University of Bath]]|access-date=18 February 2012|archive-date=19 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151219000643/http://www.bath.ac.uk/ceremonies/hongrads/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* 2005, Crime Writers' Association ''[[Dagger of Daggers]]'' for ''The Spy Who Came in from the Cold''<ref name="CWA3">{{cite news |url=http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/2005/daggerofdaggers.html |publisher=[[Crime Writers' Association]]|title=John le Carré Wins the Dagger of Daggers |access-date=6 March 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130502044154/http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/2005/daggerofdaggers.html |archive-date=2 May 2013}}</ref>
* 2005, Commander of the [[Ordre des Arts et des Lettres|Order of Arts and Letters]], France<ref name="debretts1"/>
* 2008, honorary doctorate, [[University of Bern]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news_digest/index/Bern_University_honours_John_le_Carre.html?cid=7084692 |title=Bern University Honours John le Carré |date=6 December 2008 |publisher=Swiss Broadcasting Corporation |access-date=9 March 2013 |archive-date=3 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203105940/http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news_digest/index/Bern_University_honours_John_le_Carre.html?cid=7084692 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* 2011, [[Goethe Medal]], awarded by the [[Goethe Institute]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.goethe.de/uun/gme/enindex.htm |title=The Goethe Medal – Award Recipients 1955–2012 |publisher=Goethe Institute |access-date=5 March 2013 |archive-date=26 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121226223247/http://www.goethe.de/uun/gme/enindex.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last1=Flood|first1=Alison|date=21 June 2011|title=Germany honours Le Carré with Goethe Medal|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jun/21/john-le-carre-goethe-medal|access-date=13 December 2020|work=[[The Guardian]]|language=en|archive-date=9 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809095139/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jun/21/john-le-carre-goethe-medal|url-status=live}}</ref>
* 2012, Honorary degree of [[Doctor of Letters]], [[University of Oxford]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2012/120119.html |title=Oxford Announces Honorary Degrees for 2012 |date=19 January 2012 |publisher=[[University of Oxford]] |access-date=5 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130426092223/http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2012/120119.html |archive-date=26 April 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* 2020, [[Olof Palme Prize]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.palmefonden.se/2019-david-cornwell-john-le-carre/ |title=2019 – David Cornwell/John le Carré |date=10 January 2020 |publisher=The Olof Palme Memorial Fund |access-date=10 January 2020 |archive-date=20 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200120133006/http://www.palmefonden.se/2019-david-cornwell-john-le-carre/ |url-status=live }}</ref> – le Carré donated the US$100,000 prize money to [[Médecins Sans Frontières]].<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Flood|first1=Alison|last2=Cain|first2=Sian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/10/john-le-carre-wins-100000-prize-for-contribution-to-democracy|title=John le Carré wins $100,000 prize for 'contribution to democracy'|date=10 January 2020|work=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=31 May 2020|archive-date=7 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607173442/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/10/john-le-carre-wins-100000-prize-for-contribution-to-democracy|url-status=live}}</ref>

In addition in 2008, ''[[The Times]]'' ranked le Carré 22nd on its list of the "50 greatest British writers since 1945".<ref>{{cite news |title=The 50 greatest British writers since 1945 |work=[[The Times]] |date=5 January 2008 |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/the-50-greatest-british-writers-since-1945-ws3g69xrf90 |access-date=24 July 2015 |archive-date=19 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140119031921/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/books/article2452094.ece |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
* {{cite book |last1=Beene |first1=Lynn Dianne |year=1992 |title=John le Carré |url=https://archive.org/details/johnlecarre0000been |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=[[Gale (publisher)|Twayne Publishers]] |isbn=9780805770131}}
* {{cite book |last1=Cobbs |first1=John L. |year=1998 |title=Understanding John Le Carré |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D-tBTfe0eEIC |publisher=[[University of South Carolina Press]] |isbn=978-1-57003-168-7}}
* {{cite book |last1=Manning |first1=Toby |date=25 January 2018 |title=John le Carré and the Cold War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_f9FDwAAQBAJ |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-350-03640-6}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last1=Aronoff |first1=Myron J. |year=1998 |title=The Spy Novels of John le Carré: Balancing Ethics and Politics |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |doi=10.1057/9780312299453 |isbn=9780312214821|ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |editor-last=Bruccoli |editor-first=Matthew J. |editor2-first=Judith S. |editor2-last=Baughman |year=2004 |title=Conversations with John le Carré |publisher=[[University Press of Mississippi]] |isbn=978-1-57806-669-8|ref=none}}
* {{cite book|last=Dawson|first=Suleika|year=2022|title=The Secret Heart – John Le Carré: An Intimate Memoir|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=9780008533038|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Sisman|first=Adam|author-link=Adam Sisman|year=2015 |title=John le Carré: The Biography |title-link=John le Carré: The Biography |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |isbn=9781408827932|ref=none}}

==External links==
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{{Wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb name}}
* [https://www.npr.org/2020/12/14/946276077/remembering-novelist-and-former-spy-john-le-carre Two interviews] at [[NPR]]'s ''[[Fresh Air]]''
* {{Discogs artist}}
* [https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/439574/le_carre_john_two_autograph_letters Two letters] at [[University of Leeds#Libraries|Leeds University Library]]
* {{NPG name}}

{{John le Carré}}
{{Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel}}
{{Footer Olof Palme Prize laureates}}
{{USC Scripter Awards — Television}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Carre, John}}
[[Category:John le Carré| ]]
[[Category:1931 births]]
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[[Category:Military personnel from Dorset]]
[[Category:20th-century British Army personnel]]
[[Category:20th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Irish male writers]]
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[[Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers]]
[[Category:21st-century English male writers]]
[[Category:21st-century English novelists]]
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[[Category:Accidental deaths from falls]]
[[Category:Accidental deaths in England]]
[[Category:Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Cartier Diamond Dagger winners]]
[[Category:Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres]]
[[Category:Edgar Award winners]]
[[Category:English spy fiction writers]]
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[[Category:James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients]]
[[Category:MI5 personnel]]
[[Category:People educated at Sherborne School]]
[[Category:People educated at St Andrew's School, Pangbourne]]
[[Category:People from Poole]]
[[Category:Schoolteachers from Dorset]]
[[Category:MI6 personnel]]
[[Category:Writers from Dorset]]
[[Category:Teachers at Eton College]]
[[Category:Naturalised citizens of Ireland]]