Banking on 'the creative imagination of the reader'

 

“If I had to put a name to it, I would wish that all my books were entertainments. I think the first thing you've got to do is grab the reader by the ear, and make him sit down and listen. Make him laugh, make him feel. We all want to be entertained at a very high level.” – John le Carre

 

Born in Poole, England on this date in 1931, le Carre’s wrote The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, a 60-year (and counting) bestseller that also was turned into an award-winning movie.    A one-time spy himself, le Carre, whose real name is David John Moore Cornwell, established himself as one of the greatest “espionage” authors of all time. 

 

Most of le Carre's novels are set in the Cold War Era (1945–91) and feature British MI-6 agents, unheroic political functionaries engaged in psychological more than physical drama.  His 1986 novel A Perfect Spy, cited as his most autobiographical espionage novel, chronicles the boyhood moral education of his character Magnus Pym and how it leads to his becoming a spy.

 

Le Carre earned his bachelor’s degree from Oxford University which awarded him an Honorary Doctorate degree in 2012.  In 2020, shortly before his death, he was given the Olof Palme Award by Sweden and donated the $100 thousand prize to Doctors Without Borders.  Le Carre wrote 26 novels, the final one, Silverview. published posthumously in 2021.  Thirteen of them were made into movies or television series.

 

“Like every novelist, I fantasize about film” he said.  “But, novelists are not equipped to make a movie, in my opinion.  They make their own movie when they write: they're casting, they're dressing the scene, they're working out where the energy of the scene is coming from, but they're also relying tremendously on the creative imagination of the reader.”