SECRET HEART: John Le Carre: An Intimate Memoir

A multi award-winning non-fiction title of the year of 2022, this astonishing new portrait of the master of spy fiction is written by the woman he kept secret for almost half his life. John Le Carré led a life entirely constructed of secrets. First as a British 'spook' during the Cold War, then as a world-renowned writer of espionage fiction, but also in his personal involvements. He guarded his private life with fierce determination, so that even when he finally permitted his life story to be written there was still one element he insisted be excluded - the women. Married with children for virtually all his adult life, Le Carré (David Cornwell) had a number of secret affairs, usually conducted abroad with women encountered by chance on his travels. These relationships were always intense, dramatic, even tragic, yet each was destined to last no more than a few months. But there was one love affair that withstood the test of time - just one woman in all his life whom he took into the innermost sanctum of his writing and his heart. The book is the account of Sulieka Dawson's unique and enduring love affair with Le Carré, written with honesty and insight and shedding bold new light and an alternative measure of the man over the literary legend. The human heart is after all a mysterious thing. With lots of sex, clandestine assignations and luxury breaks, she candidly describes how this controlling man was needy of her special love. 340pp, colour photos on endpapers.