Federico Varese and Nick Harkaway

Close friend of the writer John le Carré Professor Federico Varese and Le Carré’s son, Nick Harkaway, introduce a new collection of essays that provide insights into the novelist’s working methods.

Tradecraft: Writers on John le Carré, edited by Varese, features friends and collaborators offering insight into the observational writing techniques used by the author of works such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Contributing authors, including Harkaway, Errol Morris, Elleke Boehmer, Steven Matthews, Lawrence Osborne, Andrea Ruggeri, Andrei Soldatov, Michela Wrong and Hossein Amini, write about le Carré’s striving for artistic truth and historical accuracy.  The book coincides with an exhibition at the Bodleian Libraries featuring archive items that provide insights into Le Carré’s working methods. The exhibition runs until April 6.

Varesi is Professeur des Universités at the Centre d’Etudes Européennes et de Politique Comparée, Sciences Po, Paris, and a senior research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. Harkaway is the author of eight novels including his latest, Karla’s Choice, set in the missing decade between two instalments in the George Smiley series, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Harkaway is the pen name of Nicholas Cornwell, son of David Cornwell, who wrote under the pen name of John Le Carré, and his second wife Jane Cornwell.

Presented by Bodleian Libraries