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We all have our special novelists, writers whose work we’ve enjoyed over many years and return to time and again for “comfort reading”. John le Carré was one of mine. I devoured Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy after watching the BBC’s superb adaptation back in 1979 and then backtracked to read everything else he’d written. Over the years a new le Carré became something of an event on my bookshelves and I have an array of hardback copies of his novels. One of these, The Constant Gardener, has his inscription on the inside cover after I was fortunate enough to meet him on a book promotion tour.
So it was sad to hear of his death this week at the age of 89. But lovers of his work may take some comfort in this terrific piece by Richard Ovenden, head librarian at the Bodleian at Oxford. It was Ovenden who persuaded the writer to donate his papers to the Bodleian and here he recounts their friendship and expresses his admiration for le Carré’s devotion to the craft of writing. Meanwhile intelligence expert Chris Murphy writes
about le Carré’s symbiotic relationship with the world of spies.
Le Carré was famous for going beyond the “spy genre” to seek out greater and more universal truths about the world. This has never been more important than it is in today’s turbulent and confusing world. That’s why The Conversation teams its editors with academic experts in order to bring their knowledge to a wider audience. If you value what we do and are able to support us, please donate to The Conversation today. And if you’ve
already donated, thank you for your support.
Each Christmas (in more normal times at least) many thousands of tourists and devotees head to Bethlehem to celebrate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Archaeological evidence suggests they’ve been doing this for longer than you may think.
The film Happiest Season is making news as the “first holiday romantic comedy about a same-sex couple from a major Hollywood studio”. It’s the latest in a wave of LGBTQ+-friendly movies and bucks a longstanding trend for confining LGBTQ+ characters to “queer best friend” roles.
This week we’ve also considered why Sherlock Holmes was so famously rude and why snow days are becoming increasingly rare in the UK. We’ve also been marking the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.
From our colleagues around the world, why some New Zealanders are reluctant to use contact-tracing apps, the crackdown on Christmas by some early American puritans and Tanzania’s descent into authoritarianism.
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Jonathan Este
Associate Editor, International Affairs Editor
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Master craftsman: David Cornwell (better known as John le Carré).
EPA-EFE/Guido Manuilo
Richard Ovenden, University of Oxford
The archive of David Cornwell's work at the Bodleian Library in Oxford also reveals the depth of his collaboration with his wife Jane.
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Giant of literary fiction: John le Carré was both influenced by, and influential on, Britain’s secret services.
Matt Crossick/PA Wire/PA Images
Christopher J. Murphy, University of Salford
Le Carré drew on his own experience to change public perceptions of the world of spying.
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The Shrine of the Holy Nativity, Bethlehem, 1849.
David Roberts
Ken Dark, University of Reading
Recent archaeological studies suggest that early Christians were identifying important sites as little as a century after the last of the gospels.
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From Happiest Season to Booksmart, the film industry is turning a corner when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation.
Sony Pictures
Clara Bradbury-Rance, King's College London
The real problem may be that a burden of representation means these narratives must ‘do it all’
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OSTILL is Franck Camhi/Shutterstock.com
Ashley Morgan, Cardiff Metropolitan University
In Sherlock, domination is something to be revered, rather than challenged.
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Alan Thomas Kennedy-Asser, University of Bristol; Dann Mitchell, University of Bristol; Eunice Lo, University of Bristol
Since 1979, the average number of snow days has fallen by about five per decade.
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Aakanksha Virkar Yates, University of Brighton
In his work, many heard freedom as espoused by contemporary Enlightenment philosophers, like Immanuel Kant.
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Farkhondeh Hassandoust, Auckland University of Technology
New Zealanders will travel more during the summer period and it is more important than ever to use the contact-tracing app to improve our chances of controlling any potential outbreaks.
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Peter C. Mancall, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
It was less about their asceticism and more about rejecting the world they had fled.
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Nicodemus Minde, United States International University
President John Magufuli won a second term by a contested landslide and looks set to take even greater control of Tanzania's democratic space.
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East Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB11PT, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — Anglia Ruskin University
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Online, York, York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of York
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East Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB11PT, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — Anglia Ruskin University
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