Le carre biography sismanister

Adam Sisman, can you first tell us about the genesis of the book, The Secret Life of John le Carré? This shorter work serves as a coda to your full-length biography (although it can be read without being familiar with that work).

When did you initially have the idea of writing a follow-up?

While I was writing the biography that was published in 2015, my relations with David Cornwell (John le Carré’s real name) became tense, as I discovered more and more about him that he didn’t want to see published in his lifetime.

We had agreed at the start that the book should be written “at arms’ length” and that I shouldn’t flinch from telling the truth about him, however unpalatable that might be, providing that it did not cause distress to living third parties.

I wasn’t searching for scandal – far from it — but I seemed to come across mistresses wherever I went (two more have emerged since the book went to press).

As I say, David became agitated abo