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 Methuselah. This is not just the look of a man annoyed that he’s having to miss out on a birthday tea at Claridge’s: this is somebody full of righteous fury about the seemingly never-ending stupidity of those who have run the world over the nine decades of his existence.