John Le Carre – making the most of a disastrous father

John Le Carre, best known for his Cold War spy fiction which he raised to a literary art – The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Night Manager, The Perfect Gardener – has died aged 89.  Born David Cornwell on 19 October 1931, he had an extraordinary childhood with his mother bolting when he was six leaving his brother and himself with their father, Ronnie Cornwell, described as “ a charming, colourful, larger-than-life confidence trickster, a