John Le Carre (real name David Cornwell) is a British author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s he worked for the Security Service and the Secret Intelligence Service, and began writing novels under a pen name. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), became an international best-seller, and it remains one of ... Read morehis best-known works. Following the success of this novel, he left MI6 to become a full-time author. Le Carre established himself as a writer of espionage fiction. In 2008, The Times ranked le Carre 22nd on its list of The 50 greatest British writers since 1945 . In 2011, he won the Goethe Medal, a yearly prize given by the Goethe Institute. [source: Wikipedia] Show Less