A Most Wanted Man! The 12 mistresses of John le Carré are ‘just the tip of the iceberg’, says his biographer – as more of spy writer’s lovers come forward

John le Carré’s dozens of previously known mistresses are ‘just the tip of the iceberg’, his biographer claims.

Adam Sisman revealed details of the former MI6 spy’s affairs in a book last year and said many more women have come forward since its publication.

Among his mistresses, who used different names to book hotels and use safe houses, were a woman 40 years his junior, his friend’s wife and his son’s au pair.

Out of respect for his wife Jane, the spy author – real name David Cornwell – asked his biographer not to detail his infidelity while he was alive.

The official biography was published in 2015 and after the author’s death in 2020, Sisman wrote The Secret Life of John le Carré.

When he appeared at the Oxford Literary Festival, the biographer said: ‘I’m quite sure this is just the tip of the iceberg’. The Telegraph reported.

Out of respect for his wife Jane, the spy author – real name David Cornwell – asked his biographer not to detail his infidelity while he was alive. Pictured together in 2001.

Sisman said that in September 1982, David met one of these mistresses: a young woman in her mid-twenties. Sue Dawson, who lived in Chelsea, abridged books for audio release on cassette tapes. She then described herself as ‘generally up for anything’

The official biography was published in 2015 and after the author’s death in 2020, Sisman wrote The Secret Life of John le Carré

The newspaper reported that Sisman said he had identified 12 mistresses in the book, but “I think there were at least a dozen more.”

He went on to say that since the book’s publication, even more women have come forward, adding that “they just kept showing up.”

He said, “I’ve talked to David about this, and he usually hangs his head in his hands and says, ‘Oh, no.’

“I said, ‘We cannot ignore this aspect of your life,’” The Telegraph reported.

John le Carré is said to have said that he did not want to ‘humiliate’ his wife Jane, to which Sisman replied: ‘It’s a bit late for that.’

The author used versions of his mistresses in his novels as characters, his biographer said.

Jane died two months after her husband passed away at the age of 89.

The marriage of spy writer David Cornwell – better known to the world by his pseudonym John le Carré – to his second wife Jane was often publicly characterized as an ideal partnership. “I think we’re more monogamous than most couples,” he once told Sisman.

His first marriage ended after the Bonn affair in the early 1960s, when he wrote his breakthrough novel The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.

When Sue asked him what he would do if Jane ever found out about their affair, his answer was unequivocal: “I would deny you – I would deny you completely,” his biographer claimed.

The author used versions of his mistresses in his novels as characters, his biographer said

After marrying his second wife Jane, he tried to persuade the ex-model to move in with them as a ménage à trois, claiming that her ‘input’ was important to his work.

So many women shared his bed that a neighbor in West Cornwall kept a record of more than fifty conquests.

His biographer previously wrote in the Mail: ‘Most of them were younger than him, some much younger. One of these was the au pair who took care of his youngest son. With another woman, almost thirty years his junior, he had two affairs: the first in the mid-1980s, the second fourteen years later. His last, as far as I know, was with a journalist more than forty years his junior.

“When David decided to seduce a woman, he pursued her relentlessly. A handsome man even in late middle age, he could be a sparkling companion, witty and thoughtful, with a wealth of entertaining stories and a deep reservoir of experience on which to draw.

‘He wrote erotic letters to them, making them feel missed and wanted. He enticed people with literary ambitions to imagine writing together. He had the ability to make people love him even when they knew they shouldn’t, and to want to protect him and share his life.”

His biographer previously said that the author “played a spy” in his affairs.

“They required a considerable amount of craftsmanship, with codes, dead letterboxes and safe houses – flats where he would go and write supposedly undisturbed, in reality places where he could take women without fear of discovery,” he wrote in the Mail .

He added: ‘Sympathetic male friends were enlisted to act as ‘cut-outs’ and receive mail that could otherwise be intercepted by Jane. He arranged assignments abroad, booked hotels under assumed names (usually ‘Cosgrove’ or ‘Cosgrave’), used a dedicated travel agent (a former intelligence colleague, or so he told one of his lovers) and mentioned women in his directory. under code names.’

Sisman said that in September 1982, David met one of these mistresses: a young woman in her mid-twenties. Sue Dawson, who lived in Chelsea, abridged books for audio release on cassette tapes. She then described herself as “generally up for anything.”

When she asked him what he would do if Jane ever found out about their affair, his answer was unequivocal: “I would deny you – I would deny you completely,” his biographer claimed.