A Private Spy
The Letters of John le Carré
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Narrated by:
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David Harewood
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Florence Pugh
About this listen
An archive of letters written by the late John le Carré, giving listeners access to the intimate thoughts of one of the greatest writers of our time
The never-before-seen correspondence of John le Carré, one of the most important novelists of our generation, is collected in this beautiful volume. During his lifetime, le Carré wrote numerous letters to writers, spies, politicians, artists, actors and public figures. This collection is a treasure trove, revealing the late author's humor, generosity, and wit—a side of him many listeners have not previously seen.
©2022 John Le Carre, David Cornwell, Tim Cornwell (P)2022 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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you want to know what I think?
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Good book. Get the Michael Jayston version instead
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Save Time and Listen. Don't read
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Not one of Le Carré's best
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By: Sir Alan Lascelles, and others
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The Sisters
- The Saga of the Mitford Family
- By: Mary S. Lovell
- Narrated by: Annie Wauters
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the story of a close, loving family splintered by the violent ideologies of Europe between the wars. Jessica was a Communist; Debo became the Duchess of Devonshire; Nancy was one of the best-selling novelists of her day; the ethereally beautiful Diana was the most hated woman in England; and Unity Valkyrie, born in Swastika, Alaska, would become obsessed with Adolf Hitler.
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Great story, terrible reader
- By Victoria on 02-27-14
By: Mary S. Lovell
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Becoming Duchess Goldblatt
- By: anonymous
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman, Lyle Lovett, J. Smith-Cameron
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Becoming Duchess Goldblatt is two stories: that of the reclusive real-life writer who created a fictional character out of loneliness and thin air, and that of the magical Duchess Goldblatt herself, a bright light in the darkness of social media. Fans around the world are drawn to Her Grace's voice, her wit, her life-affirming love for all humanity, and the fun and friendship of the community that's sprung up around her.
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Oh Dear Duchess!
- By Rebecca Lindroos on 07-20-20
By: anonymous
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Empire of Self
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- By: Jay Parini
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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The product of 30 years of friendship and conversation, Jay Parini's Empire of Self probes behind the glittering surface of Gore Vidal's colorful life to reveal the complex emotional and sexual truth underlying his celebrity-strewn life. But there is plenty of glittering surface as well - a virtual who's who of the American Century, from Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart through the Kennedys, Princess Margaret, and the creme de la creme of Hollywood.
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Well done!
- By Christopher on 03-22-16
By: Jay Parini
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Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story
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- By: D. T. Max
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
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David Foster Wallace was the leading literary light of his generation, a man who not only captivated readers with his prose but also mesmerized them with his brilliant mind. In this, the first biography of the writer, D. T. Max sets out to chart Wallace’s tormented, anguished, and often triumphant battle to succeed as a novelist as he fights off depression and addiction to emerge with his masterpiece, Infinite Jest.
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Max avoids hagiography or a sycophant's biography
- By Darwin8u on 06-11-13
By: D. T. Max
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Charlotte Brontë
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- By: Claire Harman
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins
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Charlotte Brontë's life contained all the drama and tragedy of the great Gothic novels it inspired. Like Jane Eyre, she was raised motherless on remote Yorkshire moors and sent away to a brutally strict boarding school at a young age. Charlotte grew up and watched helplessly as, one by one, her five beloved siblings sickened and died; by the end of her short life, she was the only child of the Brontë clan remaining.
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Clear-Eyed Bio of Literature's Most Elusive Figure
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Gathering Blossoms Under Fire
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- By: Alice Walker, Valerie Boyd - editor
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From National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Alice Walker and edited by critic and writer Valerie Boyd, comes an unprecedented compilation of Walker’s fifty years of journals drawing an intimate portrait of her development over five decades as an artist, human rights and women’s activist, and intellectual.
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A must-read for any creative artist!!
- By amazonluver on 04-30-22
By: Alice Walker, and others
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The Bookseller's Secret
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- Narrated by: Eleanor Caudill
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
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In 1942, London, Nancy Mitford is worried about more than air raids and German spies. Still recovering from a devastating loss, the once sparkling Bright Young Thing is estranged from her husband, her allowance has been cut, and she’s given up her writing career. On top of this, her five beautiful but infamous sisters continue making headlines with their controversial politics. Eager for distraction and desperate for income, Nancy jumps at the chance to manage the Heywood Hill bookshop while the owner is away at war.
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Absolutely adored
- By Ignatius Jay on 08-26-21
By: Michelle Gable
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Bookworm
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- By: Lucy Mangan
- Narrated by: Lucy Mangan
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
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When Lucy Mangan was little, stories were everything. They opened up new worlds and cast light on all the complexities she encountered in this one. She was whisked away to Narnia and Kirrin Island and Wonderland. She ventured down rabbit holes and womble burrows into midnight gardens and chocolate factories. She wandered the countryside with Milly-Molly-Mandy and played by the tracks with the Railway Children.
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The author’s sarcasm
- By Phil B. on 10-01-24
By: Lucy Mangan
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Fall
- The Mysterious Life and Death of Robert Maxwell, Britain's Most Notorious Media Baron
- By: John Preston
- Narrated by: Simon Bubb
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
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In February 1991, Robert Maxwell triumphantly sailed into Manhattan harbor on his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, to buy the ailing New York Daily News. Taxi drivers stopped their cabs to shake his hand, children asked for his autograph, and patrons of the hottest restaurant in Manhattan gave him a standing ovation while he dined. Ten months later, Maxwell disappeared off that same yacht in the middle of the night and was later found dead in the water. As John Preston reveals in this revealing biography, Maxwell’s death was as mysterious as his remarkable life.
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Don't make men like this anymore
- By Sylvia on 04-06-21
By: John Preston
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Mark Twain: Man in White
- The Grand Adventure of His Final Years
- By: Michael Shelden
- Narrated by: Andrew Garman
- Length: 17 hrs
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Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Shelden illuminates Mark Twain’s twilight years in this brilliant account of the legendary author’s life. Drawing heavily on Twain’s own letters and journals, Mark Twain: Man in White recounts both Twain’s private family experiences and his larger-than-life public image.
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Fantastic book
- By Tad Davis on 08-23-10
By: Michael Shelden
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you want to know what I think?
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Save Time and Listen. Don't read
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Le Carré's SILVERVIEW brings him and us back home
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Greatest love story of the last fifty years
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Call for the Dead
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After an unremarkable interview, Circus agent George Smiley determines the subject of a standard security check—a civil servant in the Foreign Office named Samuel Fennan—poses no threat, nor presents any reason for suspicion of espionage. Hours later, Samuel Fennan is found dead by suicide. Suddenly finding himself under intense scrutiny, Smiley realizes the Circus intends to blame him for Fennan's death. Rather than remain idle, Smiley begins his own investigation into the nature of the man's demise.
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An Understated Adventure that keeps you wondering.
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A counter-terrorist operation, code-named Wildlife, is being mounted on the British crown colony of Gibraltar. Its purpose: To capture and abduct a high-value jihadist arms buyer. Its authors: An ambitious Foreign Office Minister, a private defense contractor who is also his bosom friend, and a shady American CIA operative of the evangelical far-right. So delicate is the operation that even the Minister’s personal private secretary, Toby Bell, is not cleared for it. Three years later, a disgraced Special Forces Soldier delivers a message from the dead.
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I haven't enjoyed a tale this much in many listens
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With the Cold War fought and won, British spymaster Tim Cranmer accepts early retirement to rural England and a new life with his alluring young mistress, Emma. But when both Emma and Cranmer's star double agent and lifelong rival, Larry Pettifer, disappears, Cranmer is suddenly on the run, searching for his brilliant protégé, desperately eluding his former colleagues, in a frantic journey across Europe and into the lawless, battered landscapes of Moscow and Southern Russia, to save whatever of his life he has left.
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Great stuff!
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The Complete George Smiley Radio Dramas
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The complete collection of acclaimed BBC Radio dramas based on John le Carré's best-selling novels, starring Simon Russell Beale as George Smiley. With a star cast including Kenneth Cranham, Eleanor Bron, Brian Cox, Ian MacDiarmid, Anna Chancellor, Hugh Bonneville and Lindsay Duncan, these enthralling dramatisations perfectly capture the atmosphere of le Carré's taut, thrilling spy novels.
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good reading but can't navigate
- By RB Vancouver on 01-07-17
By: John le Carré
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The Mission Song
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Abandoned by his parents, Bruno Salvador has long looked for guidance. He found it in Mr. Anderson of British Intelligence. Working for Anderson in a clandestine facility, Salvo (as he's known) translates intercepted phone calls, bugged recordings, and snatched voice-mail messages. When Anderson sends him to a mysterious island to interpret during a secret conference, Bruno thinks he is helping Britain--but then he hears something he should not have.
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Only a tease, a taunt of le Carré's brilliance
- By Darwin8u on 03-24-15
By: John le Carré
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Little Drummer Girl and Other Stories
- By: John le Carré
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The Little Drummer Girl (Abridged): Charlie, a brilliant and beautiful young actress, is lured into 'the theatre of the real' by an Israeli intelligence officer. Forced to play her ultimate role, she is plunged into a deceptive and delicate trap set to ensnare an elusive Palestinian terrorist. A Perfect Spy (Abridged): Magnus Pym, ranking diplomat, has vanished, believed defected. The chase is on: for a missing husband, a devoted father and a secret agent. Pym’s life, it is revealed, is entirely made up of secrets.
By: John le Carré
What listeners say about A Private Spy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- LGLH
- 05-05-23
Letters As Interesting As His Books
A correspondence that reveals a complicated man whose life from childhood on was as layered as an onion. Harewood and Pugh do a terrific job, with his interpretation maintaining a credible tone that adds enormously to the book's mood and her dating and occasional input providing emphasis points that keep the thread comprehensible. Particularly interesting, I think, for writers, as he offers not only tidbits of advice re the craft throughout but also provides an excellent example of how to function as a highly successful author.
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- Tom Greaves - gmail
- 10-31-23
Compelling listen with some annoying flaws
I finished it and was happy to spend the time with a favorite author.
Would someone please teach David Harewood how to pronounce et cetera? His rendering grated on me. My dread was not relieved until the book ended.
The insistence on reading the same addresses over and over wore me down. Could we not abbreviate to Tregiffian, Cornwall or Gainsborough Gardens, London?
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1 person found this helpful
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- William B. Manion
- 02-10-23
Increased appreciation for the author
As a fan of spy genre, I appreciated much but not all of his work. But after this book of his letters, an amazing, candid look at the real human behind the writings, my appreciation jumped from 75% to 95% plus. A real person, not a character from entitled aristocracy playing with people’s lives. Puts a human perspective on historical events.
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- R. Miklich
- 03-06-24
A wonderful poignant insight to a remarkable man.
I love and have read many of his novels but this collection of his letters brings into focus the inner brilliance of the man. Pity some many of his letters were lost but this collection is a treasure for those who admire this man.
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- Pamela
- 12-21-22
Quiet, Dignified, & Articulate
I really felt I was peering over the shoulder of le Carré. These letters shine a light into the thoughts of an author I have treasured for decades (as is substantiated by my bookshelves.) I don’t care to know about the “messiness” of his private life, as he describes it, and I am well aware of the limitations he honored regarding his career with MI-6. I am interested in what interested him, what gave him joy, how he felt about his books and career. A Private Spy gives me all that and more. It is a tribute and one well earned.
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- Dan
- 01-31-23
Truly engrossing from start to finish
Loved this book. David Harewood's reading was so convincing that I'd have sworn it was read by the author. I was never a fan of "spy vs spy" novels, but I've always loved "The letters of whomever" books. This did not disappoint. I recently enjoyed "The Leonard Bernstein Letters", a wonderful book, and "A Private Spy" was equally delightful. I am puzzled by one thing, tho'. With the accent on the last syllable of Carre', I always seemed to hear Ka'-ray. Go figure. While I'm sure Audible would prefer we not get political, I must say that what was said about our former president will endear Carre' to me forever.
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- Reckoning
- 12-29-22
Loved, but I’m a big fan
I loved collection of gorgeous, mellifluous British prose. David Cornwell is a letter writer’s letter writer. If you are like me—a geeky, literary Anglophile—you will adore it.
I’d advise casual readers of it le Carré‘s work to read more of them. But if you are an especial deep-dive fan, get this book and savor.
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- Christian M. Talbot
- 02-21-23
Wonderful coda to le Carré’s novels
If you’re a fan of le Carré’s novels, then you will love this inside look at his private life.
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- Marion
- 01-18-23
Terrible narrator
Reading David Cornwell's youthful letters, the narrator sounds 200 years old. After that, he just sounds sort of dumpy and unshaven. (Michael Jayston was the perfect narrator for LeCarre's books, as good as LeCarre himself.) I couldn't get past the first couple of hours, so it will have to be the print edition for me.
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