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John le Carré let me into his life to write his biography – then threatened to pull the plug. Now, I can reveal what he made me leave out

His other abridger ended up in bed with him. My memories are different: an M&S man in slacks, fleece and Clarks' shoes – who was a real gent

The former spy's novels depicted MI6 as pathetic, corrupt and ruled by mediocrities. And his final book goes even further

From his early works to his final novel, Le Carré captured the pervasive sense of being watched.

He’s been called the John le Carre of our generation and now spy thriller writer Mick Herron is having books from his Slough House series turned into a TV drama starring Oscar winner Gary Oldman. Titled Slow Horses, it will air on Apple TV, starring Oldman as Jackson Lamb, an overweight, flatulent, boozing, politically incorrect but brilliant intelligence officer who ends up in MI5’s dumping ground because of his career-wrecking mistakes. The show will also star Kristin Scott Thomas a...

John le Carré (1931–2020): Spy novelist and “inside-outside” man British author and former intelligence agent John le Carré died of pneumonia December 12 aged 89 years. Le Carré leaves behind an intriguing body of literary work set against a background of some of the key political and social developments of the past half-century. In the course of his career, le Carré was able to draw from experiences made during and after the Cold War to attract millions of readers with his carefully ...

John le Carré at the premiere of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in 2011 Credit: Sang Tan/AP One of John le Carré’s final public appearances came on his 88th birthday – October 19 2019 – when he was one of the hundreds of thousands of people taking part in the “Together for the Final Say” march calling for a second Brexit referendum. There’s a fine photograph of him on that day, with his walking stick and “Bollocks to Brexit” sticker, eyes stern under beetling brows worthy of ...

Regarding Anam Rizvis story : this is a good step. More places need to do this. We are missing all the fun field trips we can no longer take our students on... the Emirates Zoo, Heritage Village, the Grand Mosque, a farm and so many more places. Katie Kamdem, Abu Dhabi With reference to Gillian Duncans report Coronavirus: Could people who refuse to be vaccinated be prevented from travelling?(December 15): this will be another choice to make – to travel or not to travel. Because there would ...

SHARE On Saturday, John le Carre, the most celebrated spy fiction writer of his time, died from pneumonia at the age of 89. Le Carre, whose real name was David Cornwell, had been publishing novels on subjects ranging from the Cold War to the Middle East for almost 60 years. In a tweet yesterday, American novelist Stephen King wrote that 2020 has claimed a "literary giant and a humanitarian spirit". This designation of Le Carre as a humanitarian comes from the latters realistic, often critical a...

Yves here. At the risk of having readers deem me to be a philistine, I have to confess to assuming John le Carré was a guy-spy-action author. Not that I don’t regularly read male-oriented fiction (I love sci fi) but aside from Graham Greene, I’ve never been a fan of spooky novels. Now that I have learned that le Carré was subtle and subversive, I can now look forward to sampling and hopefully enjoying his work. By Anthony Barnett (@AnthonyBarnett), the founding Editor-in-Chief of openDemo...