From: noone@nowhere.com   
      
   On 1/12/25 04:57, Don wrote:   
   > As TOLSTOY ON SHAKESPEARE's ruthlessly rich revelry recedes into memory   
   > it makes me hanker for something similar yet different. In the curious   
   > case of le Carré and Forsyth, it turns out the taletelling tickles me   
   > more than tales told by the two.   
   >   
   >     "James [Fox] requested I ask you this 'cheeky question': was   
   >     John le Carré a double agent from the start?"   
   >   
   >     Questions about the late espionage novelist's loyalties are the   
   >     stuff of internet chatroom conspiracies and whispered rumors in   
   >     the all-male (until last week anyway) salons of the exclusive   
   >     Garrick Club in London where members of MI6 like to gather for   
   >     cocktails. Le Carré applied for, and received, Irish citizenship   
   >     shortly before his death in 2020. According to some, this was yet   
   >     another indication of the shaky nature of his fidelity to Britain.   
   >   
   >     Forsyth sat forward. Maybe this wasn't a softball question.   
   >   
   >     "Ah, le Carré," Forsyth seemed to be dusting off a memory of the   
   >     man. "You mean David Cornwell. John Le Carré was just his penname.   
   >     He was recruited into MI5 or MI6, I can't recall which one, but   
   >     he was never, as they say, 'in harm's way' as I was in the East   
   >     Bloc."   
   >   
   >     "I find him too depressing," I added. "He's too nihilistic for me."   
   >   
   >     "Yes, well, there was that. I met him once, you know, at a   
   >     luncheon for writers." He didn't elaborate and did not indicate   
   >     whether he liked him or not, but I lean toward the latter. In   
   >     addition to political differences, Le Carré/Cornwell characterized   
   >     the pro-Brexit crowd as neo-fascists while Forsyth saw the European   
   >     Union as the embodiment of a rising "bureaucratic dictatorship,"   
   >     Forsyth did not share Le Carré's cynicism. In short, Forsyth is   
   >     a patriot while Le Carré, in my opinion, was not.   
   >   
   >    
   >   
   > --   
   > Don.......My cat's  )\._.,--....,'``.                     veritas    _|_   
   > telltale tall tail /,   _.. \   _\  (`._ ,.               liberabit   |   
   > tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'              vos         |   
   >   
      
   "In a healthy democracy it is probably not desirable that the   
   intelligence services be wholly efficient, or wholly admired."   
   John le Carre. A Private Spy.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)