JOHN LE CARRÉ, the pen name of David Cornwell (1931–2020), was a British author of suspenseful, realistic spy novels based on a wide knowledge of international espionage.  During the 1950s and 1960s, he worked for both the Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).  Many of his novels have been adapted for film or television.

His first book, CALL FOR THE DEAD (1966), introduced the shrewd but self-effacing intelligence agent George Smiley, who became le Carré’s best-known character and was featured in several later works. His breakthrough came with his third novel, THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD (1963), which centred on Alec Leamas, an aging British intelligence agent ordered to discredit an East German official. Unlike the usual glamorous spies of fiction, Leamas is a lonely and alienated man, without a respectable career or a place in society.  Immensely popular, the book was adapted into a highly successful film (1965), as were many of le Carré’s later works.

After a string of moderately received novels, le Carré returned to his original protagonist with TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY (1974), the first in a trilogy centred on Smiley and his nemesis, the Soviet master spy Karla.  Their struggle was continued in THE HONOURABLE SCHOOLBOY (1977) and culminated in SMILEY’S PEOPLE (1979) with a successful attempt by Smiley to force Karla’s defection to the West.  In THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL (1983) a young actress is persuaded by the Israeli secret service to infiltrate a Palestinian terrorist group.  Le Carré’s later novels include A PERFECT SPY (1986), the story of a double agent; THE RUSSIA HOUSE (1989); THE SECRET PILGRIM (1991); THE NIGHT MANAGER (1993); and OUR GAME (1995), set after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In THE CONSTANT GARDENER (2005), a British diplomat investigates his wife’s death and uncovers a corrupt pharmaceutical company.  In ABSOLUTE FRIENDS (2003) two Cold War-era intelligence agents reconnect in Europe after the September 11 attacks.  A MOST WANTED MAN (2008) follows the efforts of a terrorist—the son of a KGB colonel—to conceal himself in Hamburg.  OUR KIND OF TRAITOR (2010) is the story of an English couple who, while on a tennis holiday, unwittingly find themselves embroiled in a complicated plot involving the Russian mob, politicians, and international bankers.  In A DELICATE TRUTH (2013) a young civil servant attempts to discern what actually occurred during the officially successful special rendition of a terrorist.  A LEGACY OF SPIES (2017) revisits The Spy Who Came In from the Cold and features both old and new characters.  His last published novel, AGENT RUNNING IN THE FIELD (2019) is an espionage tale set in 2018, and it incorporates such topical events as “Brexit” (the British withdrawal from the European Union).

A memoir, THE PIGEON TUNNEL: STORIES FROM MY LIFE, was published in 2016.

John le Carré died from pneumonia on 12 December 2020, at age 89.


The following books are in ePUB format unless otherwise noted:

== NOVELS ==

* Absolute Friends (Little Brown / Penguin, 2004)
* Agent Running in the Field (Penguin, 2019)
* Call for the Dead (Penguin, 2012)
* Constant Gardener, The (Scribner, 2005)
* Delicate Truth, A (Penguin, 2014)
* Honourable Schoolboy, The (Penguin, 2011)
* Karla Trilogy, The (Penguin, 2011)
* Legacy of Spies, A (Penguin, 2017)
* Little Drummer Girl, The (Penguin, 2018)
* Looking Glass War, The (Penguin, 2012)
* Mission Song, The (Little Brown / Penguin, 2006)
* Most Wanted Man, A (Scribner, 2014)
* Murder of Quality, A (Penguin, 2012)
* Naive and Sentimental Lover, The (Penguin, 2011)
* Night Manager, The (Ballantine, 2008)
* Novels, Volume 1 (Penguin, 2014)
* Our Game (Ballantine / Penguin, 2009)
* Our Kind of Traitor (Viking / Penguin, 2011)
* Perfect Spy, A (Penguin, 2011)
* Russia House, The (Penguin, 2011)
* Secret Pilgrim, The (Ballantine, 2001)
* Single & Single (Scribner / Penguin, 2018)
* Small Town in Germany, A (Penguin, 2012)
* Smiley's People (Penguin, 2011)
* Spy Who Came in from the Cold, The (Penguin, 2012)
* Tailor of Panama, The (Ballantine, 2008)
* Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Penguin, 2011)

== NON-FICTION ==

* Pigeon Tunnel, The: Stories from My Life (Penguin, 2017)
* Sarratt and the Draper of Watford (Village Books, 1999) — PDF
* Unbearable Peace, The (Granta 35, Spring 1991) — PDF
* United States Has Gone Mad, The [from Not One More Death] (Verso, 2006) — ePUB + PDF

== OTHER ==

* Afterword to "A Spy Among Friends" by Ben Macintyre (Crown, 2014) — PDF
* "George Smiley Goes Home" [in New Crimes, ed. Jakubowski, 1990] — PDF
* "King Who Never Spoke, The" (Ox-Tales FIRE, 2009)
* "What Ritual is Being Observed Tonight?" (Saturday Evening Post, 2 Nov. 1968)

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