Now 88, he still writes in longhand.
In Agent Running in the Field, John le Carré’s latest novel, one of the main characters is Ed Shannon, who does somewhat routine work in British intelligence but has access to top secret material. Ed meets Nat, who Ed doesn’t know is a real British spy. They often play badminton and, as they get to know each other, here’s Ed talking to Nat about Donald Trump:
“It is my considered opinion that for Britain and Europe, and for liberal democracy across the entire world as a whole, Britain’s departure from the European Union in the time of Donald Trump, and Britain’s consequent unqualified dependence on the United States in an era where the US is headed straight down the road to institutional racism and neo-fascism, is an unmitigated clusterfuck bar none. . . .”
“What about President Donald Trump then?” he demands, enunciating the name as if it were the very devil’s. “Do you or do you not regard Trump, as I do, as a threat and incitement to the entire civilized world plus he is presiding over the systematic no-holds-barred Nazification of the United States?”. . .
“What about all the tunnel-vision fanatics he’s got round him? The fundamentalist Christians who think Jesus invented greed.”. . .
Ed insisted on showing me video footage of Trump’s inner cabinet gathered round a table as each in turn protests his undying loyalty to the dear leader. “They’re taking the bloody Fuhrer’s oath,” he confides to me in a breathless voice. . . .
In Ed’s world there was no dividing line between Brexit fanatics and Trump fanatics. Both were racist and xenophobic. Both worship at the same shrine of nostalgic imperialism. . . .
Nat, at one point, responds: “Let me put it this way. Yes, Brexit is indeed an unmitigated clusterfuck, though I doubt there is very much we can do now to put the clock back.”. . .
As the novel progresses, Nat is searching for someone in British intelligence who is offering top secret information to the Russians. It’s a good story.
No author eviscerates the U.S. as well, and as deservedly, as le Carré. Of course, he’s had ample practice is filleting the political class and intelligence services of his own country. There have been a few bobbles in his many books but mostly they’re varying degrees of excellent.