Follow RT on By Tom Secker, a British-based investigative journalist, author and podcaster. You can follow his work via his Spy Culture site and his podcast ClandesTime. The recently departed writer occupied a strange space in the spectrum of spy authors. He was simultaneously one of British intelligence’s most respected and beloved representatives while also seen as one of its foremost critics. The demise of one of the world’s most famous spy authors leaves us with many unresolved questions. Who was le Carré? Where did his loyalties lie? Should we read his books as thinly fictionalised revelations about the crimes and corruption of MI5 and MI6, or as adverts for these agencies and their role in the world?