

Price: paperback €12, e-book €8.Lovers of spy fiction are some of the most devoted genre fans of all, and it’s easy to see why. John le Carré "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" For James Bond fans, there is a new adventure whose story revolves around King Charles III. These six books should also be on the shelf. The books about his spy George Smiley belong on every bookshelf of thriller fans. Old divisions are reappearing, global crises are joining hands. "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" celebrates its 60th anniversary, and is just as powerful and intense today as it was during the Cold War. Praised for its clarity, the Süddeutsche Zeitung made the novel the "mother of all spy thrillers". For Focus, this book is the classic of espionage literature par excellence. When the woman he loves is in danger, a dramatic showdown ensues at the Berlin Wall.īut it is precisely these pessimistic descriptions in "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" that show the grey and bleak world of espionage in Berlin in the 1960s. Too late he realizes that he has become the pawn of an intrigue. Undercover, he switches sides to protect his informants. The British agent Alec Leamas is responsible for East Germany. His disillusioned attitude is somewhat reminiscent of the character of Jackson Lamb from Mick Herron's Slow Horses series: everything is dreary and with no prospect of improvement.

John le Carré "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold": About the BookĬompared to Ian Fleming, whose James Bond comes up trumps with his technical shenanigans and conquers women's hearts as a womanizer, the story about the aging MI6 boss in Berlin is anything but optimistic. In 1963, his cover as a spy was blown and his intelligence career came to an end. In 1960 he moved to MI6 at the branch office in Bonn. In addition to this work, he began to write the novels that would quickly make him famous. Together with his colleagues, he was responsible for listening to telephone calls and carrying out break-ins to obtain information. He returned to Oxford to study and later joined the British domestic intelligence service MI5. In the late 1940s, he was stationed for the British secret service in Graz, Austria, and helped interview defectors from East Germany due to his knowledge of German. John le Carré's books could be so authentic because he himself worked as an intelligence officer for many years. Stay up to date on new releases and book tips with our newsletter. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, 1963.In his more than 50-year career and after more than 20 novels, it was "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" that stands as a symbol of British post-war literature and has lost none of its impact.

He had as much influence as Fleming, but his novels were calmer and closer to reality. John le Carré/Sunday interview on SRF, 1989īritish author David John Moore Cornwell, who was born in Poole in southern England in 1931 and later became famous under the pseudonym John le Carré, shed light on the dark experiences of espionage like no other, according to the BBC. I had a very complicated and messy childhood. In 1966, the film was nominated for an Oscar. Only two years later, the film adaptation followed, with Richard Burton and Clarie Bloom in the leading roles. John le Carré published "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" ten years later and received the Crime Writer's Association (CWA) Gold Dagger award in the same year. Efforts were made to adapt the new editions to the current zeitgeist in terms of content and language. Recently, Ian Fleming's "Casino Royale" celebrated its 70th birthday. The classic British spy novels are celebrating their milestone birthdays. Now the release of "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" celebrates its 60th birthday.ĭavid Cornwell, better known as John le Carré, created "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", the classic spy novel. The disillusioned British agent George Smiley in Carré and the charismatic womanizer James Bond in Ian Fleming. Spy novels culminated during the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s with the novels of John le Carré and Ian Fleming, whose main characters could not be more different.

Note to our readers: If you make a purchase through the links included, we will receive a commission from partners. The title celebrates its 60th anniversary. With his third novel, "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", John le Carré underlined his career as an author of spy novels.
