I love spy novels. I got off to a shaky start in the 1960s by reading Matt Helm and James Bond paperbacks. But, eventually, I read “grown up” spy novels by John le Carre (David Cornwell), Frederick Forsyth, Eric Ambler, Martin Cruz Smith, Robert Ludlum, and others. Today my favorites are Mick Heron’s Slow Horses, Mark Greaney’s Gray Man series, and Daniel Silva’s series.
Tradecraft: Writers on John le Carre (2025) takes the reader on a deep dive into the works of John le Carre. Several of le Carre’s spy novels are dissected to reveal plenty of facts of the novel and the author that you didn’t know.
My favorite chapter in Tradecraft is written by David Cornwell’s son, Nicholas Cornwell. Nicholas reveals personal facts about his father, his writing methods, and how working with “John le Carre” made him a better writer.
If you’re a John le Carre fan, Tradecraft is a must-read. If you enjoy spy fiction, you’ll learn a lot about the craft of writing spy novels from this book. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
FOREWORD Simon Cornwall — vii
PREFACE Le Carré and the Bodleian Richard Ovenden — x
INTRODUCTION Federico Varese — 1
TIMELINE OF DAVID CORNWELL’S LIFE — 26
1. Errol Morris: David Cornwell and the hopeless uncertainties of history — 29
2. Elleke Boehmer & Steven Matthews: John le Carré as world writer — 40
3. Lawrence Osborne: The Honourable Schoolboy: Hong Kong nights and Phnom Penh days — 57
4. Andrea Ruggeri: The world has gone mad: International Relations in the work of John le Carré –72
5. Andrei Soldatov: John le Carré and spying as seen from the KGB — 86
6. Michela Wrong: One week in Bukavu — 103
7. Hossein Amini: Adapting John le Carré: My first screenwriting manual — 122
8. Nicholas Cornwell: Writing with my father: Karla’s Choice by way of Silverview –138
Notes — 152
Further Reading –– 162
Acknowledgements — 164
About the Authors — 166
Picture Credits — 168
Index — 169
Liked IN FROM THE COLD and TINKER TAILOR, to a lesser degree RUSSIA HOUSE. I will read SCHOOLBOY and SMILEY’S PEOPLE someday. I have to be in the right mood. The KARLA pastiche by his son wasn’t bad. Ian Fleming and Len Deighton were my favorite Brits back in the day. Reread IPCRESS FILE recently and it didn’t hold up as well as I’d hoped. Philip Atlee still resonates with me, though.
Fred, you’re right about spy novels not holding up over time. The first few Philip Atlee novels were great. The later ones…not so much.
I read the early Le Carre, not the last few. Agree on Mick Herron. Love Slow Horses. I also liked Len Deighton’s Bernard Samson series. And Brian Freemantle’s Charlie Muffin.
Jeff, I have some Len Deighton and Brian Freemantle spy novels on my shelves. I wish I had more time to read! Patrick is in Germany running an Artificial Intelligence conference. Then he’s flying to Istanbul…because he’s never been there.
I would dispute the maturity of Ludlum’s work, but agree otherwise…
Todd, the early Ludlums were much better than the later spy novels which I always suspected were ghost-written.
I’m not a big fan of spy novels! I get confused when double agents do triple crosses! I read the original James Bond books, but the spying in them wasn’t very deep!
Bob, the spying in the Matt Helm books wasn’t deep either.