Posted on 09/14/2008 2:24:15 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
Author and former spy John Le Carr was tempted to defect to the Soviet Union during the Cold War, he revealed yesterday.
The 76-year-old, who wrote his first three books while working as an MI6 agent, admitted he was curious to know what it would be like working for the Russians.
When Le Carre whose real name is David Cornwell, was asked if he was genuinely tempted to switch sides, he said: 'Yes, there was a time when I was, yes.
'I wasn't tempted ideologically. But when you spy intensively and get closer and closer to the border . . . it seems such a small step to jump . . . and find out the rest.'
Le Carre has written 21 books, seven of which have been made into films, including The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and The Constant Gardener.
His novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was a BBC television hit nearly 30 years ago, with Alec Guinness playing the lead role of George Smiley.
The author also revealed that he turned down the chance to meet Kim Philby in 1987, the double agent who betrayed him by giving his name and those of other British spies to the Russians.
'I just couldn't do it,' Le Carre told The Sunday Times.
'There was always an instinct towards corruption in him.
'And remember, he was responsible for sending countless British agents to their deaths, to be killed - 40 or more in Albania.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Kim Philby drank himself to death after he defected 0_o
bookmark
I’m not entirely surprised. I read his first few spy novels as they came out, but they got darker and darker, and I gave up on them because it seemed to me that he was big-time into moral equivalency. Which is to say that Britain and the Soviet Union were equally culpable, and that British Intelligence and the KGB were equally nasty.
Well, in fact, you did have people in there like Kim Philby. But that wasn’t what his work seemed to be about. Rather, he seemed to be saying more and more that there was little to choose between the USSR and western civilization.
Cynical and tiresome.
btt
This is John LeCarre quality disinformation. The old KGB would be proud.
Regards,
TS
I agree with Cicero’s post above. LeCarre hammered the “we’re no better than they are” theme to the point that I lost interest in reading any more.
I would think that the very best spys learn to think like the enemy...which would make that temptation less than unusual. As long as they don’t act on it, no foul.
I’ve never been that big into his books, but ironically I just started reading “The Little Drummer Girl” and so far not bad.
-Eric
His works were never more than barely interesting and I lost interest as well as time went on.
We LOVED “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” when it first came on Masterpiece Theater all those years ago. We also enjoyed the sequel, “Smiley’s People”. We recently watched them again, getting the DVDs from Netflix. Alec Guiness was the PERFECT George Smiley.
I have always found Le Carre (real name David Cornwall) movies to be tediously boring, and a sad waste of the talents of Alec Guinness.
Le Carre swings from moral equivalency to love and admiration of the enemy. It is plain unreality (bordering on insanity) to get into such a state of mind. I don’t know exactly what is behind it, but I suspect the British education system may have a lot to do with it.
At times I think that Cornwall might have defected if Philby had not get there first.
Bad literature, penny dreadfuls, pulp, Bond, Hairy Potty, makes for good screenplays, and oftentimes good movies, everybody who knows the difference has known. Action, adventure.dialogue, no psychologizing, all good movie material, and dreadful, boring reading. I remember reading a review of a book by one of these mega-selling authors, admired by some here, and it said that the thing read like a movie treatment (pre-shooting-script scribble.) And indeed, when I checked it out, it did, totally unreadable! Yes, the movie was made soon after.
Somehow, Conan-Doyle and Agatha Christie managed to write good lit that is well adaptable to screen. Go figure!
It is a good book, enjoy.
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