The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham

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Nobody who knew John and the work he was doing could have missed the description of Smiley in my first novel.'John le Carr

Investigator, interrogator, intellectual hero biographer Michael Jago traces the life of the remarkable and engaging John Bingham, the man behind John le Carr's George Smiley.

The heir to an Irish barony and a spirited young journalist, John Bingham joined MI5 in 1940; his quiet intellect, wry wit, and knack for observation made him a natural. He took part in many of MI5's greatest wartime missions from tracking Nazi agents in Britain to Operation Double Cross that ensured the success of D-Day and later spent three decades running agents in Britain against the Communist target. Among his colleagues his skills were legendary and he soon became a mentor to many a novice spy including one David Cornwell, later known more widely as John le Carr.

Bingham, too, was an innovative writer; he perfected the psychological thriller, marrying cold objectivity with an explanation of the darkest reaches of human behaviour. His early novels were applauded but, for all his success, Bingham struggled to match the fame of the man he had inspired. Drawing on Bingham's published and unpublished writings, as well as interviews with his family, Michael Jago skilfully tells the riveting, yet poignant tale of the man who was George Smiley.

Reviews

"Michael Jago draws on family memories and Bingham's own papers to create an affectionate, and in places poignant account of a serious, conventional and ethical man." Stella Rimmington, The Spectator

Author Bio

Michael Jago read Ancient History and Philosophy at University College, Oxford before settling in the USA in 1980. For fifteen years he ran an educational travel business, focusing on the battlefields of western Europe. Formerly a publisher and editor of a number of journals, he now specialises in biography. Previous publications include the acclaimed Clement Attlee: The Inevitable Prime Minister (shortlisted for the 2015 Paddy Power Political Biography of the Year Award) and Rab Butler: The Best Prime Minister We Never Had