The pigeon tunnel : stories from my life

Title:

Author:

Le Carré, John, 1931-2020, author.

Summary:

"From his years serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War to a career as a writer that took him from war-torn Cambodia to Beirut on the cusp of the 1982 Israeli invasion to Russia before and after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, John Le Carré has always written from the heart of modern times. In this, his highly anticipated memoir, Le Carré is as funny as he is incisive, reading into the events he witnesses the same moral ambiguity with which he imbues his novels."-- Dust jacket.

Contents:

Don't be beastly to your Secret Service -- Dr Globke's laws -- Official visit -- Fingers on the trigger -- To whomsoever it may concern -- Wheels of British justice -- Ivan Serov's defection -- A legacy -- The innocence of Murat Kurnaz -- Going out into the field -- Bumping into Jerry Westerby -- Lonely in Vientiane -- Theatre of the Real : dances with Arafat -- Theatre of the Real : the Villa Brigitte -- Theatre of the Real : a question of guilt -- Theatre of the Real : terms of endearment -- The Soviet knight is dying inside his armour -- The Wild East : Moscow 1993 -- Blood and treasure -- The biggest bears in the garden -- Among the Ingush -- Joseph Brodsky's prize -- The wrong horse's mouth -- His brother's keeper -- Quel Panama! -- Under deep cover -- Hunting for warlords -- Richard Burton needs me -- Alec Guinness -- Lost masterpieces -- Bernard Pivot's necktie -- Lunching with prisoners -- Son of the author's father -- To Reggie with thanks -- The most wanted man -- Stephen Spender's credit card -- Advice to an aspiring novelist -- The last official secret.

Physical Description:

vii, 310 pages ; 24 cm

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Personal Subject:

Le Carré, John, 1931-2020-

Subject Term:

Novelists, English -- 20th century -- Biography.

Spy fiction -- Authorship.

Publisher:

Viking,

Publication Date:

2016

ISBN:

9780735220775

Publication Information:

New York, New York : Viking, [2016]

Call Number:

928 LECARRE

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003170282	Adult Nonfiction	928 LECARRE	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

"Recounted with the storytelling élan of a master raconteur -- by turns dramatic and funny, charming, tart and melancholy." -Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

The New York Times bestselling memoir from John le Carré, the legendary author of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ; The Spy Who Came in from the Cold ; and The Night Manager , now an Emmy-nominated television series starring Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie. John le Carré's new novel , A Legacy of Spies, is now available.

From his years serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War, to a career as a writer that took him from war-torn Cambodia to Beirut on the cusp of the 1982 Israeli invasion to Russia before and after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, le Carré has always written from the heart of modern times. In this, his first memoir, le Carré is as funny as he is incisive, reading into the events he witnesses the same moral ambiguity with which he imbues his novels. Whether he's writing about the parrot at a Beirut hotel that could perfectly mimic machine gun fire or the opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth; visiting Rwanda's museums of the unburied dead in the aftermath of the genocide; celebrating New Year's Eve 1982 with Yasser Arafat and his high comm∧ interviewing a German woman terrorist in her desert prison in the Negev; listening to the wisdoms of the great physicist, dissident, and Nobel Prize winner Andrei Sakharov; meeting with two former heads of the KGB; watching Alec Guinness prepare for his role as George Smiley in the legendary BBC TV adaptations of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People ; or describing the female aid worker who inspired the main character in The Constant Gardener , le Carré endows each happening with vividness and humor, now making us laugh out loud, now inviting us to think anew about events and people we believed we understood.

Best of all, le Carré gives us a glimpse of a writer's journey over more than six decades, and his own hunt for the human spark that has given so much life and heart to his fictional characters.

Author Notes

David John Moore Cornwell was born in Poole, Dorsetshire, England in 1931. He attended Bern University in Switzerland from 1948-49 and later completed a B.A. at Lincoln College, Oxford. He taught at Eton from 1956-58 and was a member of the British Foreign Service from 1959 to 1964.

He writes espionage thrillers under the pseudonym John le Carré. The pseudonym was necessary when he began writing, in the early 1960s because, at that time, he held a diplomatic position with the British Foreign Office and was not allowed to publish under his own name. When his third book, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, became a worldwide bestseller in 1964, he left the foreign service to write full time. His other works include Call for the Dead; A Murder of Quality; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; and Smiley's People.

He has received numerous awards for his writing, including the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1986 and the Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association in 1988. In 2011 he accepted the Goethe Medal. And in 2020, he accepted the Olof Palme Prize. Ten of his books have been adapted for television and motion pictures including The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, The Russia House, The Constant Gardener, A Most Wanted Man, and Our Kind of Traitor.

Le Carré's memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from my Life, became a New York Times bestseller in 2016. In 2019, he published a spy thriller, Agent Running in the Field.

John Le Carré died on December 12, 2020 from pneumonia at the age of 89.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Always insightful, frequently charming, and sometimes sobering, the memorable tales told by master storyteller le Carré (A Delicate Truth) about his life will surely delight both longtime fans and newcomers. Le Carré's stories take readers around the world, covering his posting as a young intelligence officer in post-WWII Germany, his time in Gorbachev's Russia, and research trips for his novels. His witty reminiscences of situations both dangerous and absurd, and his well-delineated portraits of exceptional and quirky figures, bring to life the extraordinary adventures that fed his novels. Those novels deal with the slippery world of espionage, political intrigue, and secret agents-most famously through the exploits of English spymaster George Smiley. (Alec Guinness, who portrayed Smiley memorably on television, figures prominently in le Carré's memoir as well.) In perhaps the most serious chapter, le Carré talks candidly about his con artist father, Ronnie, and the failings of both father and son. But his self-deprecating humor and wit are never far away, and he proves a most elegant and genial host on this tour of his life and work. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Review

The octogenarian spy novelist who was once a spy himself was catapulted to celebrity with his third novel, 1963's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Half a century of best sellers and film/TV adaptations cemented his iconic status and opened the world's doors, and all the while le Carré made detailed mental notes. With a storyteller's craftsmanship, he recounts escapades with a list of notables-and his own frayed family-in British intelligence, as a writer, deep-background researcher, teacher, linguist, illustrator, and adventurer. Why would a listener choose le Carré's memoir when Adam Sisman's thorough and recent John le Carré: The Biography is available? Because this life story is read by the person who lived it, rendering it intimate and personal. In fact, if only one format of The Pigeon Tunnel could be purchased, it should be the audiobook. Not only is it delivered with the zest of a raconteur, but le Carré animates voices and inflections with an actor's finesse, whether the speaker is Yasser Arafat or Margaret Thatcher. One need not be a le Carré devotee to be captivated by this vivid memoir. VERDICT Will appeal broadly to le Carré fans, history buffs, movie aficionados, and readers of biography and intelligent fiction of various genres. ["Highly recommended for readers interested in the history and evolution of the spy trade and political intrigue from a participant's perspective": LJ 9/15/16 starred review of the Viking hc.]-Judith Robinson, Univ. at Buffalo © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Preface	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
1 Don't be beastly to your Secret Service	p. 13
2 Dr Globke's laws	p. 24
3 Official visit	p. 34
4 Fingers on the trigger	p. 37
5 To whomsoever it may concern	p. 43
6 Wheels of British justice	p. 47
7 Ivan Serov's defection	p. 49
8 A legacy	p. 55
9 The innocence of Murat Kurnaz	p. 64
10 Going out into the field	p. 70
11 Bumping into Jerry Westerby	p. 78
12 Lonely in Vientiane	p. 82
13 Theatre of the Real: dances with Arafat	p. 86
14 Theatre of the Real: the Villa Brigitte	p. 98
15 Theatre of the Real: a question of guilt	p. 104
16 Theatre of the Real: terms of endearment	p. 108
17 The Soviet knight is dying inside his armour	p. 114
18 The Wild East: Moscow 1993	p. 126
19 Blood and treasure	p. 137
20 The biggest bears in the garden	p. 146
21 Among the Ingush	p. 157
22 Joseph Brodsky's prize	p. 161
23 The wrong horse's mouth	p. 164
24 His brother's keeper	p. 175
25 Quel Panama!	p. 189
26 Under deep cover	p. 200
27 Hunting for warlords	p. 204
28 Richard Burton needs me	p. 215
29 Alec Guinness	p. 228
30 Lost masterpieces	p. 233
31 Bernard Pivot's necktie	p. 244
32 Lunching with prisoners	p. 250
33 Son of the author's father	p. 255
34 To Reggie with thanks	p. 290
35 The most wanted man	p. 292
36 Stephen Spender's credit card	p. 302
37 Advice to an aspiring novelist	p. 303
38 The last official secret	p. 304
Sources	p. 309

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Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Library Journal Review

Table of Contents