The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life

Hardback

Main Details

Title The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life
Authors and Contributors      By (author) John le Carre
SeriesThe Penguin John le Carre Hardback Collection
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:352
Dimensions(mm): Height 197,Width 127
Category/GenreLiterary studies - fiction, novelists and prose writers
British and Irish History
ISBN/Barcode 9780241396377
ClassificationsDewey:823.914
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint Penguin Classics
Publication Date 28 July 2022
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

The extraordinary memoir from one of the world's greatest living novelists, now in the giftable hardback series The Pigeon Tunnel, John le Carre's memoir and his first work of non-fiction, is a thrilling journey into the worlds of his 'secret sharers' - the men and women who inspired some of his most enthralling novels. From terrifying meetings with Yasser Arafat in war-torn Beirut to brilliantly observed encounters with the great figures of 20th century film, from Stanley Kubrick to Alec Guinness. The reader is swept along not just by the chilling winds of the Cold War or by the author's frightening journeys into places of terrible violence but, most importantly, by the author's inimitable voice. In this astonishing work we see our world, both public and private, through the eyes of one of the world's greatest writers.

Author Biography

John le Carre was born in 1931. For six decades, he wrote novels that came to define our age. The son of a confidence trickster, he spent his childhood between boarding school and the London underworld. At sixteen he found refuge at the university of Bern, then later at Oxford. A spell of teaching at Eton led him to a short career in British Intelligence (MI5&6). He published his debut novel, Call for the Dead, in 1961 while still a secret servant. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People. At the end of the Cold War, le Carre widened his scope to explore an international landscape including the arms trade and the War on Terror. His memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel, was published in 2016 and the last George Smiley novel, A Legacy of Spies, appeared in 2017. He died on 12 December 2020. His posthumous novel Silverview was published in 2021.