Original insights on John le Carré by the people who worked with him, illuminating the storied writer’s working methods.
John le Carré is one of the most significant political novelists in the English language. His early career in the secret service took him to West Germany at the height of the Cold War and subsequent novels prompted field trips all over the world, from Hong Kong to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He conducted hundreds of interviews with privileged observers, from freedom fighters to spies, bankers, and gangsters.
In this book, collaborators and friends take us behind the scenes to give original insights into le Carré’s extraordinary observational writing techniques, revealing his unique tradecraft as a writer. Le Carré’s striving for artistic truth and historical precision is presented here through the words of those who worked alongside him, together with an analysis of the novels that so often captured the zeitgeist. Illustrated with manuscript pages, family photographs, film stills, and correspondence, Tradecraft provides a multifaceted portrait of the working life and legacy of a great writer.
Table of Contents
PREFACE Le Carré and the Bodleian Richard Ovenden
INTRODUCTION Federico Varese
1. Errol Morris: David Cornwell and the hopeless uncertainties of history
2. Elleke Boehmer & Steven Matthews: John le Carré as world writer
3. Lawrence Osborne: The Honourable Schoolboy: Hong Kong nights and Phnom Penh days
4. Andrea Ruggeri: The world has gone mad: International Relations in the work of John le Carré
5. Andrei Soldatov: John le Carré and spying as seen from the KGB
6. Michela Wrong: One week in Bukavu
7. Hossein Amini: Adapting John le Carré: My first screenwriting manual
8. Nicholas Cornwell: Writing with my father: Karla’s Choice by way of Silverview