Background
He was born in Poole, Dorset, on Oct. 19, 1931.
He was born in Poole, Dorset, on Oct. 19, 1931.
He graduated from Oxford University in 1956.
After teaching for two years and working at various other jobs, he joined the British Foreign Service in 1960.
His first novel, Call for the Dead, was published in 1961. The success of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), his third novel, allowed le Carre to leave the Foreign Service and devote himself full time to writing. Call for the Dead introduced secret agent George Smiley. The opposite of the James Bond "super-spy, " Smiley is a plump, middle-aged, diffident man, often disillusioned with his profession. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is about British spy Alex Leamas, who is talked into accepting one last assignment - a pretended defection in which he is cynically deceived by his superiors and spiritually destroyed. The novel was widely acclaimed for the authenticity of its characterizations and settings and was responsible for returning realism to espionage fiction.
Le Carre's reputation as the master of the spy story was firmly established with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974). Suggested by the case of "real-life" double agent Kim Philby, the novel finds George Smiley being brought out of retirement to uncover a traitor in the midst of British intelligence. The cold war struggle between Smiley and his Soviet KGB antagonist, Karla, is also the focus of The Honourable Schoolboy (1977) and Smiley's People (1980). A Perfect Spy (1986) is a complex novel about double agent Magnus Pym. Moving back and forth in time and place, it relates the tortured life story and amoral motivations behind Pym's treachery.
Le Carre's other novels include The Looking-Glass War (1965), The Little Drummer Girl (1983), The Russia House (1989), and The Secret Pilgrim (1991). He successfully made the transition from cold war espionage novels to more general spy fare with the political/psychological thrillers The Night Manager (1993) and Our Game (1995).
In 1954, Cornwell married Alison Ann Veronica Sharp; they had three sons - Simon, Stephen and Timothy - and divorced in 1971. In 1972, Cornwell married Valérie Jane Eustace, a book editor with Hodder & Stoughton; they have one son, Nicholas, who writes as Nick Harkaway