“I made an awful mess of my first marriage. It was hard to live with me being me. I was so abnormal. I mean, most writers struggle. I hadn't struggled. I couldn't suddenly go down to the PEN Club and behave like a normal human being, because most of those guys were struggling to make a couple of thousand pounds a year.”

English author

John le Carré, born David John Moore Cornwell, was an English author of the 20th and 21st centuries. He is best known for his espionage novels, many of which were adapted for film or television. He worked for both MI5 and MI6 in the 1950s and 1960s, experience that shaped much of his fiction. His novels are often noted for their moral complexity and a carefully measured view of intelligence work. Near the end of his life, he became an Irish citizen.