David John Moore Cornwell is best known by the pen name John
le Carré. He is a British
author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and '60s, he worked for both the
Security Service and the Secret Intelligence Service. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
(1963), became an international best-seller and remains one of his best-known
works. Following the success of this novel, he left MI6 to become a full-time
author.