I'm a frenchman of 38 years old, I love reading and writing. I discovered his universe 15 years ago thanks to "The Constant Gardener" and since then I kept on reading him, listening to him. We (with 30 other authors) published in France a collective book in 2018, "Cahier de L'Herne", while he published "The Legacy of Spies". These last years, I've talked with authors and journalists who had worked with him, or wrote about him. In the end of December 2020, I wrote a tribute to his memory. Now, I'm preparing a book dealing with his work as a (extraordinary) writer. Thank you for sharing this interview. Greetings from France
Lots of people know something but have no ability to talk about it, and I think we all know we're not wasting our time as soon as he opens his mouth! He once turned me down for a small job, did so politely and directly in 5 words, and I had no feeling of being rejected at all!. And I remember his kind tone 30 years later! John Windsor-Cunningham
One of the great post-war writers. A literary giant, insightful, intelligent and a British icon. RIP David. I'll be re-reading your books and toasting your life.
Same. The first audiobook I ever bought was a serialized version of THE SECRET PILGRIM, read by le Carré, and I absolutely fell in love with his voice (both in the authorial sense and literally; his accents and characterizations are brilliant). I was so, so thankful that he read the complete unabridged version of his new book. Just gotta listen to it at 1.45x speed 😊
le Carre is a mesmerizing speaker. Brilliant, articulate. I own the Criterion DVD of "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold." An added extra is commentary from le Carre about the making of the film. I've watched it many times.
This interview with John le Carre, just like every other one with this great novelist on You Tube, is a real treat. Thank you so much to 'pratn' for sharing it.
I've been listening to his audio books for thirty years. On cassette, then discs, and now digitally. His voice and ability to mimic accents are a real treat.
Same! I had to buy cassette copies of the 1990 production of THE SECRET PILGRIM from eBay and then digitize them just to get back that marvelous performance of his in that book (which I'm fairly certain was my first audiobook ever), and I own the entire Michael Jayston run on Audible. What a legacy JLC has left behind.
Brilliant Masterpiece Theatre production, spell binding. Ian Richardson dominated every scene he was in. It was a amazing depiction of the culture of the Cambridge 5.
Every time I pick up one of le Carre's books, I really do experience a little frisson of excitement. I know I am going to love it; I know I am going to want to devour it whole while also wanting to make it last and last. They are like good port and fruit cake in front of a log fire. And to hear his beautiful voice talk about his work is just an absolute pleasure. Great interview, one he really seemed to relax into.
Thank you for posting this. I'm curious about the date. I suspect that it was filmed before Alec Guiness did Smiley's People, because I think that John le Carré / David Cornwall would have been just as pleased with Alec Guiness' second outing as George Smiley. I'm currently re-watching portions of both here on YT. The acting, including the supporting characters, is absolutely stellar in both.
Rest easy young man. Although not a fellow countryman, I respected his objective look at what he calls 'the secret world' since his time serving the intelligence community during the cold war. He was eloquent and a gentleman anti authoritarian. I shall have to watch the BBC smiley series again in honour of the man. Say hello to Guinness when you meet him!
I've read and watched over and over T.T.S.S. Watched it last night. Coincidentally I was paying particular attention to the pain registered in the great man's face. Power and courage.
The single most important mission of a bureaucracy, whether it is intel or road repair, is to perpetuate the bureaucracy. Paranoia is good for business in the spy game.
You can see the quality of British education here both public and private. The logic eloquence empathy and depth. His eye and perceptions of inner world in British society was so amazing.
Was in the middle of reading Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy when the news came that he passed away. What a great author and anti-imperialist voice he was. One of the recommendations of this video is an American conservative rants and raves about his "anti-American politics" which is just *chef's kiss*. Rest in peace, my good lad.
@@anotherbadseedClancy was SUCH a jerk, just a miserable old prick. My father knew him and got me into a book signing at a Marine Corps dinner back in the 80s, and as a teenaged writer of espionage stories myself I was anxious to speak with him about his process. When I tried to strike up that conversation he just said, "My next book is coming out in a month, read that." Never meet your heroes. Most are dicks.
Love how David describes perfectly for his English audience, the memorable voice and delivery of actor Alec Guinness... "He had this wonderful “Eeyore” voice... i.e. just like the little donkey Eeyore speaks, so gloomy and wistful, in the many recordings of A.A.Milne's 'Christopher Robin & Pooh Bear' stories. 3:28
Excellent interview; one of the best I have seen. He is so wonderfully articulate and eloquent with a marvellous display of the English language. He's also right about choosing the ruling elite to serve in Intelligence positions. Ian Fleming was from a wealthy, upper class family, who's mother wrote to Churchill thereby securing him a job in the intelligence world. His experiences there informed his Bond books and also led him to lead a pretty hedonistic life Le Carre would have been aware of that class system within British Intelligence and to which he refers in Smiley.
A fascinating insight from an expert observer of this peculiar world of spies and spying. He is perfectly correct. There is no substitute for human intelligence.
Intelligent, is the thing, Ron. I have met many 'smart' geniuses who had great memories, and that is a not the same as true intelligence. Having it means it must be nurtured, worked to the bone, developed and expanded. Getting things easily, remembering more easily is not the same. So I am pleased your wish is for the grander gift, intelligence; but very possibly what you have is more than those who have smarts in spades. Namaste and care, mhikl
Le Carre is a great psychologist. Would be interesting to ascertain the psychological reasons for the Cambridge spies betrayal of the nation, especially Kim Philby.
In Philbys case he married a Jewish wife and his handler was the Fifth Man - Nathan Meyer Rothschild. You can do the math from there as to whose cause he was loyal to.
Particularly interesting on the pecking order among the Free World allies during the Cold War, the paranoia that infested the CIA under Angleton, and the similarity of the methods of the postwar US Empire to those of the prewar British.
I have read and reread Tinker Tailor so often that my copy of the book is falling apart. The BBC serisation of it and of Smileys People were superb and I have read this wonderful man's books for decades. I was so sad to hear of his death and am just grateful for the intelligent interviews he left behind, as well as the body of work.
@@Yamah12a I cannot begin to tell you how much I hated the film. Connie, who spoke and understood Russian so perfectly, played by someone who couldn't speak decent English??? The assassination of the girl central to the betrayal of the mole taking place in front of someone who didn't know her??? Toby unrecognisable?? God knows what le Carre himself thought of it, no matter what he may have said in public. As another author once remarked, on seeing a film of her work, "One takes the money and one shouldn't".
@@alidabaxter5849 Kathy Burke was a strange choice for someone as elegant as Connie but there you go. I liked it the first time and my likeness of it has deteriorated every time I watch it since. The music was really good and probably one of the best things but still not a patch on the tense orchestration of the series. Im not excited for a follow up of Smiley's People as I didnt get any love or happiness following Gary Oldman as Smiley. Not bad but certainly not great. 4/10.
@@Yamah12a That was of an entirely different quality. Bear in mind Gary Oldman had had nothing to do with it! It was superbly cast and acted, but I thought the ending of the book was more realistic; the tv series was how you would have liked it to end. Even so, great. By the way, if you don't mind going all the way back to the tv series of Tinker, Tailor, I thought the casting was miraculous and especially because Lady Anne had always been enigmatic to me, and the moment you saw Sian Philips you understood completely why Smiley put up with her, and why his solicitor told him that nobody would divorce Lady Anne.
The interviewer ALMOST sounds like Beryl Reid, who of course was Connie Sachs in both Tinker Tailor and Smiley's People. Sadly, she died 6 years before this was filmed.
A lot of people are here to say how great le Carre is and how terrible Tom Clancy was. As someone who is a fan of both le Carre and Clancy, here's what I think: you can't really compare the two authors, because they were both the masters of their genres. John le Carre is the master storyteller of spy/espionage fiction, because that's mainly what his books encompassed. Clancy, on the other hand, created the "techno-thriller" novel. He never really was a spy/espionage novelist. Most of his books are highly technical in regards to military matters and specific in regards to intelligence capabilities and activities. His books involved spies, and a lot of his characters are involved in intelligence work, but his books never really read as espionage thrillers. Out of all of his books, I really only consider one to be a true espionage thriller (Cardinal of the Kremlin). So I don't know why people are hating on Clancy so much. Both he and le Carre are (were, in Clancy's case) very intelligent and captivating to listen to. Both are incredible storytellers and they both know (knew) what they were talking about. Obviously people can have their own opinions, and of course die hard le Carre fans are gonna hate on Clancy, and vice versa. Objectively speaking though, they're both great writers and masters of their genres.
I would recommend 21:50 on, his views on information overload and lack of human intelligence... not long after 9-11, before the true scope of intelligence failures about Saadam were widely known
he's right about information sorting. got jan 6 wrong. Pearl Harbor is the prime example. And he is right about the cost. People crack me up, thinking how much the government is watching us, honey they cant Afford it.
