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John le Carré, chronicler of Englishness, died Irish, son reveals

JacksinPA

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Author was so opposed to Brexit that he took Irish citizenship to remain European

John le Carré, the great embodiment and chronicler of Englishness, saved his greatest twist not for his thrillers but the twilight of his own life: he died an Irishman.

The creator of the quintessential English spy George Smiley was so opposed to Brexit that in order to remain European, and to reflect his heritage, he took Irish citizenship before his death last December aged 89, his son has revealed.


“He was, by the time he died, an Irish citizen,” Nicholas Cornwell, who writes as Nick Harkaway, says in a BBC Radio 4 documentary due to air on Saturday. “On his last birthday I gave him an Irish flag, and so one of the last photographs I have of him is him sitting wrapped in an Irish flag, grinning his head off.”
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One of my favorite contemporary authors. I'm glad he stuck to his guns near his end.
 

Author was so opposed to Brexit that he took Irish citizenship to remain European

John le Carré, the great embodiment and chronicler of Englishness, saved his greatest twist not for his thrillers but the twilight of his own life: he died an Irishman.

The creator of the quintessential English spy George Smiley was so opposed to Brexit that in order to remain European, and to reflect his heritage, he took Irish citizenship before his death last December aged 89, his son has revealed.


“He was, by the time he died, an Irish citizen,” Nicholas Cornwell, who writes as Nick Harkaway, says in a BBC Radio 4 documentary due to air on Saturday. “On his last birthday I gave him an Irish flag, and so one of the last photographs I have of him is him sitting wrapped in an Irish flag, grinning his head off.”
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One of my favorite contemporary authors. I'm glad he stuck to his guns near his end.
One of my favorite authors. He was not an apologist for Englishness.
 

Author was so opposed to Brexit that he took Irish citizenship to remain European

John le Carré, the great embodiment and chronicler of Englishness, saved his greatest twist not for his thrillers but the twilight of his own life: he died an Irishman.

The creator of the quintessential English spy George Smiley was so opposed to Brexit that in order to remain European, and to reflect his heritage, he took Irish citizenship before his death last December aged 89, his son has revealed.


“He was, by the time he died, an Irish citizen,” Nicholas Cornwell, who writes as Nick Harkaway, says in a BBC Radio 4 documentary due to air on Saturday. “On his last birthday I gave him an Irish flag, and so one of the last photographs I have of him is him sitting wrapped in an Irish flag, grinning his head off.”
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One of my favorite contemporary authors. I'm glad he stuck to his guns near his end.
A great writer. His best stuff was the Cold War-era novels,my opinion, though Little Drummer Girl was very good too.
 
A great writer. His best stuff was the Cold War-era novels,my opinion, though Little Drummer Girl was very good too.

The BBC video series on 'Tinker, Tailor...' with Alex Guiness as Smiley is available (all 7 episodes) on YouTube. Guess what I will be watching tonight.
 
The BBC video series on 'Tinker, Tailor...' with Alex Guiness as Smiley is available (all 7 episodes) on YouTube. Guess what I will be watching tonight.
Brilliant.
George Smiley is one of my favourite characters. In all fiction. Wasn't Alec Guiness in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, too? It was Richard Burton who played Leamas.

edit- Sir Alec Wasn't in it, but he'd be the ideal Smiley.
 
Brilliant.
George Smiley is one of my favourite characters. In all fiction. Wasn't Alec Guiness in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, too? It was Richard Burton who played Leamas.

edit- Sir Alec Wasn't in it, but he'd be the ideal Smiley.

I can't get enough of the Brit boys choir at the ending of each episode.
 
I can't get enough of the Brit boys choir at the ending of each episode.
Who plays Guillame? That interplay between him and Smileys wife to cloud Smileys judgement was brilliant.

edit- just Googled it. Great cast.
 

Author was so opposed to Brexit that he took Irish citizenship to remain European

John le Carré, the great embodiment and chronicler of Englishness, saved his greatest twist not for his thrillers but the twilight of his own life: he died an Irishman.

The creator of the quintessential English spy George Smiley was so opposed to Brexit that in order to remain European, and to reflect his heritage, he took Irish citizenship before his death last December aged 89, his son has revealed.


“He was, by the time he died, an Irish citizen,” Nicholas Cornwell, who writes as Nick Harkaway, says in a BBC Radio 4 documentary due to air on Saturday. “On his last birthday I gave him an Irish flag, and so one of the last photographs I have of him is him sitting wrapped in an Irish flag, grinning his head off.”
=================================================
One of my favorite contemporary authors. I'm glad he stuck to his guns near his end.

I sincerely hope this embarasses QE2 & rest of the Brit nobility.
 
I can't get enough of the Brit boys choir at the ending of each episode.

I watched episodes 1-3 last night on my tablet while in bed. My mistake: the music at the end of each episode is not a choir but rather a young male castrati. During the Middle Ages when they built all those cathedrals in Europe, they needed young boys with their high-pitched voices to sing hymns like that. They like the voices of young boys so much that they were castrated as soon as their testicles descended so that their voices would remain child-like.

Net: What's the history of castrati? In 400 AD in Constantinople, the empress Aelia Eudoxia had a eunuch choir-master, Brison (sidenote: eunuchs were castrated after puberty, so the operation didn't necessarily have an impact on their voice). But castrato singers first appeared in Europe in the mid-16th century.
 
I watched episodes 1-3 last night on my tablet while in bed. My mistake: the music at the end of each episode is not a choir but rather a young male eunuch castrati. During the Middle Ages when they built all those cathedrals in Europe, they needed young boys with their high-pitched voices to sing hymns like that. They like the voices of young boys so much that they were castrated as soon as their testicles descended so that their voices would remain child-like.

I've watched 'Tinker, Tailor...' often enough that I feel I have a fairly good grasp on the plot but today I broke down & ordered the book from my library. FWIW, being familiar with the basic plot & characters from the BBC video will assist me greatly in getting through the book.

Net: What's the history of castrati? In 400 AD in Constantinople, the empress Aelia Eudoxia had a eunuch choir-master, Brison (sidenote: eunuchs were castrated after puberty, so the operation didn't necessarily have an impact on their voice). But castrato singers first appeared in Europe in the mid-16th century.
 
Who plays Guillame? That interplay between him and Smileys wife to cloud Smileys judgement was brilliant.

edit- just Googled it. Great cast.

A central subtheme in the book is Smiley's role as a cuckold to his beautiful wife. Everyone seems to have known about it. 'How's Ann?" So much for keeping your private life private. But he manages to keep his cuckold's horns on straight.

And my poor achey wife got the book for me from the library.

She's got what I would call a fairly mild reaction to her 2nd shot yesterday. But at least she's alive & now has a better chance against the virus.
 
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A central subtheme in the book is Smiley's role as a cuckold to his beautiful wife. Everyone seems to have known about it. 'How's Ann?" So much for keeping your private life private. But he manages to keep his cuckold's horns on straight.

And my poor achey wife got the book for me from the library.

She's got what I would call a fairly mild reaction to her 2nd shot yesterday. But at least she's alive & now has a better chance against the virus.
George Smiley, like I said, isone of my favouritecharacters in fiction. And John le Carre sure did hischaracters well.
One of the best moments in fiction was when Smiley prevailed against Karla ("Karla's making a legend for a girl!")who dropped that cigarette lighter.
All the best to your wife. Mine got her first last Tuesday and by the end of the day felt pretty crappy but woke up tickety-boo next day.
 
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