Suleika Dawson at Literary Review:
Adam Sisman presents this new book on John le Carré as a ‘secret annexe’ to his earlier biography of the author. Its subject is the women in le Carré’s life – the ones the novelist didn’t marry, that is, but to whom he repeatedly offered the secret parts of himself, which the ones he did marry almost never got to see. It’s only a slim volume, but, as we are so often told, size doesn’t matter if a fellow knows what he is doing. As one of le Carré’s women myself, I feel in a position to take a view.
The reason why Sisman had to keep his annexe secret is that le Carré (real name David Cornwell), whom Sisman initially believed had given him a free hand to write a ‘warts and all’ biography, ultimately forbade him from including details of these previously hidden affairs. Given that equally able writers – Robert Harris, Graham Lord, Jeffrey Meyers and others – had previously fallen at this Becher’s Brook of biography, variously deterred and outmanoeuvred by the ever wily and always wary novelist, Sisman should perhaps have seen the volte-face coming.
more here.