SECRET LIFE OF JOHN LE CARRE

This definitive biography won all the major prizes in the year of publication, 2023, casting le Carré's life and writing in a fresh light. Secrecy came naturally to John le Carré, though there were some secrets that he fiercely fought to keep. Nowhere was this more apparent than in his private life. Seemingly content in his marriage, the novelist conducted a string of love affairs over four decades and to keep these relationships secret, he made use of tradecraft that he had learned as a spy - code names and cover stories, cut outs, safe houses and dead letter boxes. Such affairs introduced both jeopardy and excitement into what would otherwise be a quiet and ordered life. Le Carré seemed to require the stimulus they provided in order to write, though this meant deceiving those closest to him. It is no coincidence that betrayal became a recurrent theme in his novels. Sisman's definitive biography, published in 2015, revealed much about the elusive spy-turned-novelist, yet le Carré was adamant that some subjects should remain hidden, at least during his lifetime. Now updated, the story of what was left out offers reflections on the difficult relationship between biographer and subject and more than that adds a necessary coda to the life and work of this complex, driven and restless man. 'A seamy, steamy supplement to the biography' it is revealing and shocking, painfully honest and anguished and how the novelist's life and his art depended completely on the wives and new women to serve as inspiration for each book. 193pp.