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John Le Carre RIP
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Great storyteller RIP2
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Ah, huge loss. Always my first choice of holiday reading. RIP.0
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Oh wow.....Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy......wonderful read and a superb BBC drama series, 1979 Seven part series starring the incomparable Sir Alec Guinness, one of the best things done by The BBC in its entire history IMHO.
RIP......Old Chap......RIP.3 -
Top man Le Carre.1
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RIP0
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My favourite fiction author bar none. Just recently read ‘A Legacy of Spies’. He leaves behind a fantastic legacy of work.1
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Wonderful books. Led a really interesting life.RIP0
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It was the Russians.RIP - my favourite modern writer0
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An interesting chap who had witnessed the 'affairs of state' and, rather than be drawn into a 'cosy club', wrote about injustice. RIP.
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/john-le-carre-on-the-crimes-of-the-pharmaceutical-industries/Le Carré speaks out against the global pharmaceutical industry
March 28, 2001
John le Carré has given an interview to swissinfo about his latest novel, “The Constant Gardener”, in which he attacks the Swiss pharmaceutical industry. He also spoke of his relationship with – and affection for – Switzerland.
The book, set in Africa, is about a fictional pharmaceutical company seeking to promote a “wonder cure” for tuberculosis. Le Carré told swissinfo that as part of his research he conducted off-the-record interviews with people working in Basel for the Swiss pharmaceutical industry.
Le Carré said he would never reveal the names of his contacts, nor identify the companies they worked for. But he did say that when he began exploring the industry, his contacts in Switzerland and Britain told him “some very alarming things”.
He pointed out that an estimated 80 per cent of AIDS sufferers were in southern Africa, and only one per cent had access to medication because of its high costs. “I accept that the drug companies are not charities,” he said. “But they are spending more than twice as much on marketing as on research and development.
The author believes it is wrong that prices of medicines in Africa are based on what the US market is able to pay.
“It cannot continue that we allow patent laws to exercise the right of life and death on these people. It’s genocide. It simply means you kill the poor. And so that was what the novel was really about, the use of Africans as guinea pigs…being theoretically willing to test medicines which neither they nor their countries would ever be able to buy.”
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/11/john-le-carre-truth-was-what-you-got-away-with'My ties to England have loosened': John le Carré on Britain, Boris and Brexit
11 October, 2019
His attitude to Brexit is pungently expressed in the new novel. [Agent Running in the Field]. “It is my considered opinion,” one of the characters declares to Nat, “that for Britain and Europe, and for liberal democracy across the entire world as a whole, Britain’s departure from the European Union in the time of Donald Trump, and Britain’s consequent unqualified dependence on the United States in an era when the US is heading straight down the road to institutional racism and neo-fascism, is an unmitigated clusterfuck bar none.”
He is profoundly worried by the present state of his country. Johnson and his svengali, Dominic Cummings, are running what le Carré recognises as a highly sophisticated propaganda campaign to convince the people that they are their true champions, arrayed with them against the power of parliament and the political elite. This, he says, is a breathtaking sleight of hand that could bring about serious civil disorder. “And absolutely the most terrifying thing that could happen is that the EU should cave in on some minor point regarding the backstop, Johnson blows the dust off May’s withdrawal agreement, adds his own spin, claims a great victory, gets it through a frightened parliament, and rules for eight years.”
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RIP JLC, I enjoyed reading your novels on the beach.0
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RIP such a great writer0
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One of my all time favourite authors. So sad, RIP John.0
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So much more than just a writer. Fascinating life.
RIP
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Have read and reread just about everything he has written. RIP.1
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I'm not a particularly literary person but John le Carre was and always will be my favourite author, and more than that, increasingly an inspirational talisman, whose work helped me make sense of the world. The BBC Today prog. this morning is implying that his later novels were not as successful as his Cold War ones. Really ? No less than six of his post-Cold War novels have been adapted for screenplay.
At least the last three of his books, I bought with trepidation, thinking this has surely to be his last. I made sure to buy "Agent Running in the Field" in hardback for that reason. Yet his talents never failed him in his eighties.
If you are not familiar with his later work and view him as an espionage novelist, I'd really urge you to investigate the later ones. If pressed I'd choose The Night Manager as my favourite from this era.
John le Carre is a talisman for those of us who refuse to see the world in tribal, black and white ways. He held Johnson and Corbyn, Cummings and Milne, and eventually Blair, in equal contempt. I feel like a friend has passed away this morning.6 -
RIP
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RIP.0
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A great literary career over more than 50 years. My introduction was The Spy Who Came In From The Cold as a schoolboy and I have enjoyed his work, both books and films of those books, ever since.
On a lighter note I had him down for the 'Celebrities Who Are Still Alive' thread. Sadly, that is not to be now.
RIP0 -
Very sad. I've read maybe a dozen of his books and have enjoyed every one of them and plan to read all the rest at some point and probably to re-read some. An absolute master and one of the towering figures of post-war British literature. He should have had a lot more recognition (including a Booker or two) had it not been for snobby literary types dscounting what they regard as genre fiction.
Personal favourites are The Spy who came in from the Cold, the Perfect Spy, the Honourable Schoolboy and Absolute Friends.1 -
He led a very full and interesting life .. R I P0
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Enjoyed reading his works,
RIP0 -
Only watched The Spy Who Came in from the Cold a few evenings ago.One of my favourite films from the early 1960's.RIP.1
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Not read any of his books but loved Tinker Tailor (both BBC drama & film) and also The Constant Gardener.
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Superb writer. His stories stayed with you long after you read the final page. “ The spy who came n from the cold” and “A small town in Germany” are my personal favourites alongside “ Tinker tailor... “.1
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One of my favourite authors. RIP.
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Couldn't agree more. Something those Milwall scum would never understand.PragueAddick said:I'm not a particularly literary person but John le Carre was and always will be my favourite author, and more than that, increasingly an inspirational talisman, whose work helped me make sense of the world. The BBC Today prog. this morning is implying that his later novels were not as successful as his Cold War ones. Really ? No less than six of his post-Cold War novels have been adapted for screenplay.
At least the last three of his books, I bought with trepidation, thinking this has surely to be his last. I made sure to buy "Agent Running in the Field" in hardback for that reason. Yet his talents never failed him in his eighties.
If you are not familiar with his later work and view him as an espionage novelist, I'd really urge you to investigate the later ones. If pressed I'd choose The Night Manager as my favourite from this era.
John le Carre is a talisman for those of us who refuse to see the world in tribal, black and white ways. He held Johnson and Corbyn, Cummings and Milne, and eventually Blair, in equal contempt. I feel like a friend has passed away this morning.4 -
Loved his books. My favourite... the spy who shagged me1
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John le Carré obituary
The Guardian, 14th December 2020
The real enemies for Le Carré were not the Russian gangsters, for all their brutality, but the western, and particularly British, enablers and louche House of Lords and City corruptionists, with palms extended to take a share of the money, however obtained and from whatever source. The upper-class rogues who control “Great Britain plc” come quite high in Le Carré’s ranking of evil men.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/14/john-le-carre-obituary
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Obituaries and tributes everywhere, including a long segment just now on Czech TV.
But from the Prime Minister of the UK? Not a word. A week ago all over Barbara Windsor's passing. Probably exactly as JLC would have predicted. Pygmy.4 -
Great words matePragueAddick said:I'm not a particularly literary person but John le Carre was and always will be my favourite author, and more than that, increasingly an inspirational talisman, whose work helped me make sense of the world. The BBC Today prog. this morning is implying that his later novels were not as successful as his Cold War ones. Really ? No less than six of his post-Cold War novels have been adapted for screenplay.
At least the last three of his books, I bought with trepidation, thinking this has surely to be his last. I made sure to buy "Agent Running in the Field" in hardback for that reason. Yet his talents never failed him in his eighties.
If you are not familiar with his later work and view him as an espionage novelist, I'd really urge you to investigate the later ones. If pressed I'd choose The Night Manager as my favourite from this era.
John le Carre is a talisman for those of us who refuse to see the world in tribal, black and white ways. He held Johnson and Corbyn, Cummings and Milne, and eventually Blair, in equal contempt. I feel like a friend has passed away this morning.2
