Description

A Telegraph Book to Read for Autumn 2022

A Times Best Nonfiction Book for Autumn 2022

A Daily Mail Book of the Year 2022

A Waterstones Best Book of 2022 Biography

The astonishing new portrait of the master of spy fiction by the woman he kept secret for almost half his life

John le Carr led a life entirely constructed of secrets First as a British spook during the Cold War then as a worldrenowned writer of espionage fiction but also in his personal involvements He guarded his private life with fierce determination so that even when he finally permitted his life story to be written there was still one element he insisted be excluded the women
Married with children for virtually all his adult life le Carr David Cornwell had a number of secret affairs usually conducted abroad with women encountered by chance on his travels These relationships were always intense dramatic even tragic yet each was destined to last no more than a few months But there was one love affair that withstood the test of time just one woman in all his life whom he took into the innermost sanctum of his writing and his heart
The Secret Heart is the account of Suleika Dawsons unique and enduring love affair with John le Carr Written with fearless honesty and insight the book sheds a bold new light on one of the foremost British writers of the 20th century and offers an alternative measure of the man over the literary legend