The Secret Life of John le Carré by Adam Sisman review – the constant philanderer

Three years after le Carré’s death, his official biographer reveals the adultery that was off limits during his lifetime. Does it further our appreciation of his work?

Soon after the deaths of John le Carré, AKA David Cornwell, and his wife, Jane, weeks apart in 2020 and 2021, a long silence came to an end. In The Secret Heart, a memoir published last autumn, le Carré’s sometime research assistant, Sue “Suleika” Dawson, outed herself as one of more than a dozen women to have had an affair with the former intelligence agent after the success of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963) encouraged him to give up the day job and, seemingly, monogamy.

The gory details of le Carré’s affairs had been ruled a no-go zone in the otherwise diligent 2015 biography by Adam Sisman, who hadn’t previously written about a living subject. Dealing with le Carré, he soon found, was different. Not long after speaking to his lovers, including Dawson, the novelist began meddling, seemingly warning off possible interviewees, suggesting that he would nullify Sisman by bringing out his own memoir first, not to mention hinting that he might kill himself if Sisman persisted in researching his infidelities.