A collection of letters from John le Carre,one of the greatest British novelists of our time,and a fabulous letter writer,spanning decades from his childhood,to the Cold War to his final years
John le Carre was one of the greatest novelists of his generation. He also had an extraordinary life. A Private Spy is the story of that life told through the voice of this masterful writer.
We hear le Carre as a teenager and then as a young man trying to make his way in the world. There are beautiful and moving letters to le Carre's stepmother about his relationship with his fraudster father. There are letters about his first marriage and letters to his children. There are wonderfully vivid letters to great actors and great writers. There are brilliantly sharp and very funny portraits of politicians and public figures. And throughout the collection there is the clear,inimitable voice of this magnificent writer.
By turns intimate and comic,tender and clear-sighted A Private Spy offers a rare and illuminating portrait of one of the great figures of our times.
Publisher: Penguin Books LtdISBN: 9780241994559Number of pages: 752Weight: 600 gDimensions: 198 x 130 x 46 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'Each letter from John le Carre was a beautifully written miniature essay... fascinating'- Ben Macintyre
'A Private Spy testifies to le Carre's universally acknowledged gifts as a raconteur,mimic and caricaturist'- Robert Potts
'Unsurprisingly,he was a brilliant correspondent. Revelations tumble out... these engaging letters are edited with great fairness and sensitivity by a family member,his son Tim Cornwell'- Andrew Lycett,Mail on Sunday
'The symbiosis of author and editor,father and son,has resulted in a brilliant book,le Carre's final masterpiece,5'- Jake Kerridge,Sunday Telegraph
'The finest,wisest storyteller'- Richard Osman
'A towering writer'- Margaret Atwood
John le Carré
One of the greatest spy novelists of all time,John le Carré was born in 1931. His third novel,The Spy Who Came in from the Cold,secured him a worldwide reputation,which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People all featuring his most famous character,George Smiley,the quintessential Cold War operative. An antidote to Fleming's racier James Bond,Smiley is cool,thoughtful,somewhat academic and (superficially) "breathtakingly normal"with a somewhat ambivalent attitude to the Service and its efficacy. His other novels,thrillers which range widely covering variously political issues of the arms trade,modern conflict and drug-trafficking,include: A Most Wanted Man,Our Kind of Traitor,A Delicate Truth and the recently adapted The Night Manager. His only work of non-fiction,The Pigeon Tunnel,was a Number One bestseller in 2016.
Visit the John le Carré author page
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