Tinker, tailor, soldier, defector — John le Carré: I nearly left the West

Times Online ^ | 9-14-08 | Maurice Chittenden

[SeafoodGumbo]

JOHN LE CARRE, the espionage writer, has revealed that he was tempted to defect to the Soviet Union during the cold war.

The author, whose real name is David Cornwell, wrote his first novel while working for MI6 in 1961. He says he was not attracted to communism – he was just curious to find out what life was like behind the iron curtain in the 1960s.

[SeafoodGumbo]

Remember the disgusting piece le Carre wrote a few years ago: America Gone Mad.

[raybbr]

He’s a boring writer. I never could get past the first twenty pages or so of any of his books.

[Flycatcher]

I've always wondered which UK writer is more self-loathing — John le Carre or Harold Pinter. We'll probably never know.

[FortWorthPatriot]

At first I thought this article was about John Kerry...

[pt17]

he was just curious to find out what life was like behind the iron curtain in the 1960s.

Stupid, boorish writer. You didn't have to defect to go there and find out. Even when they gave you the "VIP tour", it looked bad. Get away from your "handlers" and it looked really bad - all the way from East Berlin to Moscow.

[DesScorp]

Perhaps the west would be better off if he had defected.