A delicate truth: John le Carré, spy fiction and intelligence​

ABSTRACT

This article introduces the importance of John le Carré’s work as a lens to study intelligence and international affairs. We introduce three themes that are developed throughout this issue. First, this issue contributes to methodological debates about how to study cultural artefacts in intelligence and security studies. Second, authors discuss representations of intelligence and underline the porous boundaries between fact and fiction. Third, contributions emphasize the universal character of le Carré’s oeuvre. We argue that fiction is an important line of enquiry since it is one of the most widely shared discourses on intelligence activities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. This figure does not include le Carré’s autobiography The Pigeon Tunnel (2016) or his 26th novel, Silverview, published posthumously in October 2021.

2. Other adaptations include: The Deadly Affair (1967), The Looking Glass War (1970), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979 and 2011), Smiley’s People (1982 as a serial and 2009–2011 as a radio series), The Little Drummer Girl (1984 and 2018), The Russia House (1990), A Murder of Quality (1991), The Tailor of Panama (2001), The Constant Gardener (2005), A Most Wanted Man (2014), Our Kind of Traitor (2016), The night manager (2016).

3. Morgan, “Whores and angels of our striving selves”; Oldham, “‘Don’t let the side down, old boy’.”

4. Schwartzbrod, “Robert Littell.”

5. See for example Miller, “Cultural imperialism and James Bond’s penis.”

6. Eco, “The Narrative Structure in Ian Fleming.”

7. See Burkett, “An Alternative Framework for Agent Recruitment.”

8. Sisman, John Le Carré, 17.

9. Ibid, 18.

10. le Carré, The Pigeon Tunnel, 6–7.

11. For a precise reconstruction of le Carré’s career in British intelligence, and especially the myths that surround it, see West, “Birds of a Feather.”

12. Sisman, John le Carré, 78.

13. Ibid., 135.

14. Ibid., 209.

15. West, “Birds of Feather,” 608.

16. Sisman, John Le Carré, 225.

17. According to Sisman, the press eventually uncovered le Carré’s real identity in 1964, which led to “renewed speculation that the book [The Spy who came in from the Cold] was based on real experience.” See Sisman, John le Carré, 253–254.

18. McCrum, “A legacy of spies.”

19. Banville, “’My ties to England have loosened’.”

20. This search was conducted on 6 October 2021 on the Taylor & Francis search engine and included all publication types. By comparison, “Ian Fleming” returned 44 results, and “Tom Clancy” 13 results.

21. See for instance Black, “The Geopolitics of James Bond.”

22. Phythian, “Intelligence and the liberal conscience,” 510.

23. Scott and Jackson, “The Study of Intelligence in Theory and Practice,” 161.

24. Ibid., 161.

25. Blistène, “Ordinary lives behind extraordinary occupations.”

26. Burridge, “SIGINT in the Novels of John le Carré.”

27. One exception is le Carré, A Perfect Spy (1986).

28. Burridge, “SIGINT in the Novels of John le Carré,” 132.

29. Johnson, “Spies in the American Movies”; Dujmovic, “Hollywood, don’t you go disrespectin’ my culture”; Zegart, ‘”Spytainment”; Zegart, Spies, Lies and Algorithms.

30. Willmetts, “The cultural turn in intelligence studies,” 802.

31. Willmetts, “Reconceiving Realism.”

32. Johnson, “The Development of Intelligence Studies.”

33. On the British example, see for instance Andrew, Secret Service; Andrew, The Secret World.; Aldrich, GCHQ; Cormac, Disrupt and Deny. On the French example, see for instance Laurent, Politiques de l’ombre; Forcade, La République secrète, 2008.

34. le Carré, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

35. Monaghan, “John le Carré and England.”

36. Correra, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.”

37. Richard Dearlove, Cliveden Literary Festival, 2019. For the response see: le Carré, “John le Carré hits back at attack by ex-MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove.”

38. Walton and Andrew, “What Spies Really Think About John le Carré”.

39. Ibid.

40. Cohn, “The Watch on John le Carré.”

41. Rimington, “Dame Stella Rimington on John le Carré.”

42. Monaghan, “John Le Carré and England,” 574–575.

43. Andrew, For the President’s Eyes Only, 121–122; Rezk, “Orientalism and Intelligence Analysis.”

44. See for example Hastedt, “CIA’s organisational culture and the problem of reform”; Zegart, Flawed by Design; Bean, “Organisational Culture and U.S. Intelligence Affairs.”

45. Davies, “Intelligence Culture and Intelligence Failure in Britain and the United States”; Duyvesteyn, “Intelligence and Strategic Culture”; Welch, “Political Culture”; de Graaff and Nyce, Handbook of European Intelligence Cultures; and Shaffer, Handbook of African Intelligence Cultures.

46. Saunders, Who paid the pipers?; Wilford, The Mighty Wurlitzer; Jenkins, The CIA in Hollywood; Willmetts, In Secrecy’s Shadow.

47. McCrisken and Moran, “James Bond, Ian Fleming and intelligence.”

48. Willmetts, “The Cultural Turn in Intelligence Studies.”

49. Shapiro, Cinematic Political Thought; Weldes, To Seek Out New Worlds; Weber, Imagining America at War; Der Derian, Critical Practices of International Theory; Bleiker, Aesthetics and World Politics.

50. Der Derian, Virtuous War; Melley, The Covert Sphere. Secrecy, Fiction and the National Security State; Melley, “Covert Spectacles and the Contradictions of the Democratic Security State”; Blistène, “The Bureau and the Realism of Spy Fiction.”