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Fresh Air

Spy Novelist (And Former Spy) John Le Carré

Fresh Air

NPR

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.434.4K Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2023

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The author of such spy novels as The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Night Manager is the subject of a new documentary by Errol Morris called The Pigeon Tunnel. It features the final interviews with le Carré who died in 2020. It details his life as a writer and his earlier work as a spy for Britain's domestic and foreign intelligence services. We'll listen back to the interviews Terry Gross recorded with him in 1989 and 2017.

Also, Justin Chang reviews Alexander Payne's new comedy film The Holdovers.

Transcript

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on the Book of the Day podcast only from NPR. This is Fresh Air, I'm Terry Gross. The late John

1:09.5

LeCarrie wrote spy novels that were praised for transcending genre fiction and simply being

1:15.0

great literature. Many of his books have been adapted into films or TV series, including

1:20.4

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Little Drummer Girl,

1:25.3

The Constant Gardener, and The Night Manager. LeCarrie died in 2020 at the age of 89,

1:31.7

but documentary filmmaker Errol Morris has a new film that features interviews with the writer.

1:37.2

It's called The Pigeon Tunnel, which is also the title of LeCarrie's 2016 memoir.

1:42.4

The film is currently in theaters and can be streamed on Apple TV Plus. In his New York Times

1:48.0

obituary, Sarah Lyle wrote that LeCarrie, quote, portrayed British intelligence operations as

1:54.4

cesspools of ambiguity, in which right and wrong are too close to call, and in which it is rarely

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