In the late stages of writing John le Carré’s biography, a doorstopper of 600-plus pages published in 2015 to largely appreciative reviews, Adam Sisman received an email from the writer’s wife, Jane. Attached was a 22-page memorandum of 196 corrections from the author, some of which queried source material that, as Sisman coolly notes with the mild glee of the vindicated, came from le Carré himself. The entire project – not an officially authorised biography but one undertaken with the knowledge and, to varying degrees, the cooperation of its subject – had been something of a push-me, pull-you affair.
Since the author of novels including the Smiley trilogy, The Night Manager and The Constant Gardener died in 2020 at the age of 89, there has been plenty for the aficionado to grapple with: a collection of his letters from 1945 until his final days, edited by his son Tim, who died in 2022, and the melancholy, rainswept Silverview, his 26th novel.
