‘Like an academic’: private papers reveal John le Carré’s attention to detail | John le Carré

The scope of John Le Carré’s meticulous research and showing the details is among the insights of the working methods that will arise if the Master’s special archive is exhibited for the first time in this autumn.

Classic Cold War Period Spying Novels sold tens of millions of copies worldwide and inspired the adapted film and television adaptations.

The Bodleian libraries at the University of Oxford announced an exhibition called John Le Carré: Tradecraft in October and took advantage of thousands of articles in his large private archive.

Le Carré, whose real name is David Cornwell, asked the archive to be placed with the receiving material and after his death in 2020, he was officially donated to the country with his acceptance plan in Lieu, preventing his loss abroad.

Le Carré, who referred to the biggest fictional character, self -influenced and essentially referring to the British Spymaster George Smiley, once said: “Oxford was Smiley’s spiritual house like me.”

The exhibitions, which are the first time, will include plenty of notes about their characters and the sketches visualized at the boundaries of their manuscripts, like a film director.

Explanatory manuscripts will show that he has repeatedly revised his novels. In a draft for Tinker Terzi Soldier spy, he defined Smiley as “small, podgy and the best middle -aged”: “His legs were short, the walk is agile.”

Le Carré worked as a diplomat and a secret agent for MI5 and MI6 before the name of MI5 and MI6 before the name of the traitor Kim Philby, who inspired the Soviet mole infiltrated to the highest ranks of the secret intelligence service in Tinker Tailor Soldier spy.

Le Carré raises the spy novel to higher art, while Ian Fleming creates a brave antithesis to James Bond, the exhibition will describe it as a spy writer – as he sees himself – he is not a spy.

He will show how he collects information, draws stories, and how he develops iconic characters such as Smiley and Wily KGB SpyMaster. Archive papers reveal the complex timeline of the parcels.

The title of the exhibition plays in the term “tradecraft ,, which he uses to describe espionage techniques, but that curators can be applied to his own talented craft as a writer and social commentator”.

The special letters to be shown include a handwriting note that reveals the discomfort of public opinion speculation about the espionage career before it is really verified. “Why do people want me to have views on espionage? If I wrote about love or cowboys, even about sex, people were my interest and therefore I prepared stories about it,” he wrote.

There is also a letter that actor Alec Guinness doubts that Tinker Tailor Soldier spy doubts his suitability for playing Smiley in his first television adaptation. Le Carré convinced him to take one of his most memorable roles.

With the support of Le Carré’s family, the exhibition curated by Prof Federic Varese and Dr Jessica Douthwaite, a long -standing friend of Le Carré and Bodleian libraries.

Reflecting Le Carré’s meticulous approach to research, intelligence operators will discover close cooperation with corporate informators and humanitarian aids and to reveal corruption, such as unethical practices in the pharmaceutical industry.

Varese, a professor of Oxford Criminology, which contains Russia Mafia, was among the friends to send the first sketches of Le Carré’s novels. “It was very clear to the suggestions,” Varese said.

After examining the content of the archive, he was surprised by Le Carré’s research. “He was like an academician. He would go to the places he would write like anthropologists or sociologists. He would read comprehensively, interview people in the field, take notes, and then write them as fiction. He would do for all extraordinary novels.”

In staging the exhibition, he wants to “respect a person I admire”.

• John Le Carré: Open in Tradecraft Weston Library, Bodleian Libraries last until April 6, 2026 on October 1. Tradecraft, a accompanying book: will be published by the authors in John Le Carré Bodleian Library Publications.