John Le Carré’s Son Penning New George Smiley Spy Novel
10.11.2023 - 15:51
/ deadline.com
John le Carré‘s famous spy character George Smiley hasn’t retired quite yet. Nick Harkaway, le Carré’s son, is writing a new Smiley novel that will publish globally in fall 2024.
Smiley was known for his depiction as the archetypal British secret agent of the 20th century through novels such as The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley’s People. From his debut in 1961 to his most recent outing in 2017, Smiley novels have sold more than 30 million copies across formats.
The book will explore the decade of Smiley’s life in between the final scenes of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and the start of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The polite and self-deprecating character works for the shadowy British intelligence agency ‘The Circus’ and is considered a foil to the showier James Bond.
Penguin Random House’s label Viking will publish the new, currently unnamed book in the UK, U.S. and Canada after acquiring global English-language rights from Curtis Brown boss Jonny Geller. International language deals are being negotiated.
Le Carré (real name David Cornwell) died in December 2020 aged 89. His memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel, published in 2016 to acclaim and was adapted into a doc by Errol Morris. It screened at Telluride, Toronto, New York and London before selling to Apple TV+, which launched it in October. His final book, Silverview, was published posthumously in 2021.
Harkaway (born Nick Cornwell) is the author of books such as Gnomon, The Gone-Away World, Tigerman and Titanium Noir and writes the Jack Price novels under the pen name Aidan Truhen. His brothers, Simon and Stephen Cornwell, run The Ink Factory, which has adapted le Carré novels The Night Manager and The Little Drummer Girl into TV