David John Moore Cornwell, known to millions of readers as John le Carré, rightly believes that if “childhood is the credit balance of the writer, . . . I was born a millionaire” (le Carré, 2016: 256). Cornwell was born in the genteel south-coast town of Poole, Dorset, on 19 October 1931, to a reprobate father, Ronald (“Ronnie”) Thomas Archibald Cornwell (1906-1975), and an emotionally unstable mother, Olive Moore Glassey (1913-1982), who abandoned her family, eloping with one of Ronnie’s business partners when Cornwell was only five and his brother, Anthony (“Tony”), seven. Although he was reunited with her in the early 1950s, Cornwell never forgave Olive’s betrayal. In …

8139 words

Citation: Beene, LynnDianne. "John Le Carré". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2002; last revised 16 December 2020. [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2652, accessed 28 March 2024.]

2652 John Le Carré 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.