14 December 2020 - John le Carré dies aged 89
John le Carré: Espionage writer dies aged 89
(BBC News, 14/12/2020)
British espionage writer John le Carré has died aged 89, following a short illness, his literary agent has said.
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy author died from pneumonia on Saturday night.
Jonny Geller described him as an "undisputed giant of English literature" who "defined the Cold War era and fearlessly spoke truth to power".
John le Carre: The writer who opened a window on a secret world
Press Association (The Telegraph, 14/12/2020)
John le Carre was one of the most highly acclaimed spy novelists of our time, and arguably one of the most accurate chroniclers of Britain in the Cold War.
He brought the world of espionage - with all its secrecy, betrayal and treachery - into parallel with society, writing with the authority of a man who had lived and worked in the intelligence sphere.
His accuracy in research and technique relied on what was undoubtedly his greatest gift - that of a born storyteller.
John le Carré Remembered as ‘Superb’ Writer With Style and Substance
Cynthia Littleton (Variety, 13/12/2020)
John le Carré was lauded Sunday as a writer’s writer whose productivity and singular storytelling style was praised by fans ranging from late night star Seth Meyers to fellow novelists Stephen King and Paulo Coelho.
Le Carré, who died Dec. 12 at the age of 89, was known as a master of espionage fiction who turned out 25 novels over more than a half-century of writing. His signature works — including “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold” — captured drama and tension of Cold War geopolitical jockeying like no other contemporary scribe.
Le Carré’s novels were widely adapted as film and TV properties over the years, including 2005’s “The Constant Gardener,” which earned an Oscar for star Rachel Weisz, and 1965’s “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold,” starring Richard Burton. AMC had a hit in 2016 with limited series “The Night Manager,” starring Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie.
'My ties to England have loosened': John le Carré on Britain, Boris and Brexit
John Banville (The Guardian, 11/10/2020)
Ihave always admired John le Carré. Not always without envy – so many bestsellers! – but in wonderment at the fact that the work of an artist of such high literary accomplishment should have achieved such wide appeal among readers. That le Carré, otherwise David Cornwell, has chosen to set his novels almost exclusively in the world of espionage has allowed certain critics to dismiss him as essentially unserious, a mere entertainer. But with at least two of his books, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963) and A Perfect Spy (1986), he has written masterpieces that will endure.
Which other writer could have produced novels of such consistent quality over a career spanning almost 60 years, since Call for the Dead in 1961, to his latest, Agent Running in the Field, which he is about to publish at the age of 87. And while he has hinted that this is to be his final book, I am prepared to bet that he is not done yet. He is just as intellectually vigorous and as politically aware as he has been at any time throughout his long life.