So if I could write for an hour and a half on the train, I was already completely jaded by the time I got to the office to start work. To give the best of the day to your work is most important. In those days it was an hour and a half each way. The line has since been electrified, which is a great loss to literature.

In those days English newspapers were much too big to read on the train, so instead of fighting with my colleagues for the Times, I would write in little notebooks. In 1996, John le Carré was interviewed in the Paris Review – The Art of Fiction. During the early days of his writing career he had a long train-journey to and from his work.

Several of le Carré’s novels have been adapted for the cinema including The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) The Tailor of Panama (2001) The Constant Gardener (2005) and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011). The BBC later adapted Smiley’s People for TV in 1982, also starring Alec Guinness as George Smiley. I n 1979, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was adapted for BBC TV as a seven part series starring Alec Guinness. The novel launched his career and in 1964, le Carré left the service to devote himself to writing. It was during this period that he discovered his passion for writing, publishing Call for the Dead in 1961 and A Murder of Quality in 1962 before writing what is largely considered to be one of the great novels of the twentieth century, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. In 1960, he was transferred to MI6, the foreign intelligence service, and worked under “Second Secretary” cover in the British Embassy at Bonn. After being educated at the Universities of Bern and Oxford, he went on to teach at Eton before becoming an MI5 officer. British author John le Carré was born in 1931.

John le carre 1979