Adam Sisman

Sneaker, Womanizer, Lover, Spy
Review of the Harper (US) hardcover (October 24, 2023) of the Profile Books (UK) original (October 12, 2023).

The revelations in The Secret Life of John le Carré do add background to his writing of espionage novels as he apparently carried on a lifetime of extramarital affairs using the various methods used by the spies in his fiction. This included various cut-outs, dead-drops, aliases and safe houses. It all provided fodder for the writing as well, as many lovers would later recognize themselves fictionalized as heroines in the books.

Sisman's book is an addendum to his earlier John le Carré: The Biography (2015) published in Carré's lifetime, for which the biographer agreed to hold back on the author's love life in order to gain access to Carré for personal interviews and private archives.

Not all of this is new to veteran Carré watchers, the writer's own The Naive and Sentimental Lover (1971) was a fictionalized account of his affair with Susan Kennaway and his friendship with her husband James Kennaway. At least one lover, Sue Dawson, writing as Suleika Dawson, has penned her own memoir of their affair in The Secret Heart: John le Carré: an intimate memoir (2022).

I read The Secret Life... as part of my current ongoing Carré binge which began with seeing the biographical film The Pigeon Tunnel (2023) at the recent Toronto International Film Festival.

Other Reviews
The Constant Philanderer, by Anthony Cummins, The Guardian, October 15, 2023.

Trivia and Links
An earlier article revealed the upcoming publication of The Secret Life... at Biography to Reveal Secrets Held Back While Author Was Alive, by Sarah Shaffi, The Guardian, March 1, 2023.

See photograph at https://media.rightmove.co.uk/49k/48638/139336214/48638_TRS210037_IMG_00_0000.jp...
John le Carré's home in Cornwall, England which was recently put up for sale. Image sourced from RightMove Co. UK. [Note: Links were working as of November 2, 2023. Image and link may no longer be available once the house is sold.]… (more)

Ugh. I don't know, the title promised a whole lot more than the book delivered. Even Kirkus Reviews failed me here. This is a story about British academia and how they were blindsided by a fraudulent parson/student/professor/researcher...take your pick. I imagine that if I was more familiar with the structure of British academia it might make more sense, but really what I saw was a systematic failure of an insulated group of academics to deal with this wackadoodle character, who keeps popping up using variations on the same deceptions he has employed in the past. The writing was fine, but the story just held very little interest after the first couple of chapters. A well written tale but of a mediocre series of events and a mediocre criminal. Sorry, but not recommended.… (more)