How John le Carré’s spy novels were shaped by his con-man father

David Cornwell was steeped in secrecy throughout his life – long before he took on the nom de plume John le Carré, long before his first novel, Call for the Dead, was published in June 1961, and long before he became one of the UK’s most critically acclaimed, bestselling spy novelists. He learned deception and self-reliance from an early age, later recalling one particular childhood memory with his older brother, at the start of a day out from school.