Nick Cornwell writing as Nick Harkaway has stepped into the shoes of his father John le Carré for his new novel Karla’s Choice—a major autumn release from Penguin, featuring his father’s iconic spy, George Smiley.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspaper. It's lovely
00:06this afternoon to speak to Nick Cornwell, who is the son of the celebrated novelist
00:11John Le Carre. Now, Nick is going to be in Chichester on November 28th with his new book,
00:17which features, well, it features, Nick, your father's iconic spy.
00:21It does, George Smiley.
00:24How did you stray into that territory? What made you want to go there?
00:29Oh, I mean, I didn't I didn't exactly want to. I was persuaded to. My family asked me
00:37whether I would consider writing this book, and I got very excited and said that I would.
00:43So I had I had refused initially in my head, because it's obviously such a big undertaking.
00:50And it's this extraordinary piece of 20th century literature, and it defines the Cold
00:54War and so on. And I had the nerves. But when my brother said, will you do it?
00:59That sort of flipped on me in my head.
01:00It's so interesting that that changed, that you didn't want it coming from you.
01:03But when you were asked, put on the spot, you said yes.
01:06Yeah.
01:06Why was it different?
01:09It's just a sort of it's a different emotional direction.
01:12I sort of thought I won't do this.
01:14I don't. It's such a big thing to do.
01:17And particularly for me, I spent 15 years putting clear blue water between myself and my father in my writing.
01:24And suddenly to kind of turn around and go, actually, yeah, no, you know, I will.
01:28I will connect the two was was really alarming.
01:31But when you're asked to do it, you kind of get permission automatically to think about it again.
01:37You know, it's no longer a kind of putting yourself forward situation.
01:40It's like kind of, you know, you're being asked.
01:42And I suddenly realised that I want to.
01:44I want the creative apprenticeship with my dad.
01:47I want the I want the opportunity to work into this extraordinary world.
01:50And I miss those characters. I want to bring them back.
01:52Yeah. And you're saying something so interesting that you understand the resistance.
01:56People might say, oh, you shouldn't do that.
01:58That's wrong to do that.
02:00You should leave it as it was.
02:01But your point is just try it.
02:03Yeah, we've all got we've all got that.
02:06Yeah, we've all got that thing of sort of sequel disappointment where you kind of go and see something or you read something that you are really excited about and it doesn't quite come off.
02:15But my bet is that if you open the book and have a look, you'll find that it works for you.
02:21Because, I mean, so far it has for most people.
02:24So, you know, but I do I do get the resistance.
02:26I understand it. And I respect the attachment to the original material that says, you know, no, don't touch it, because I have it, too.
02:33But in my case, it went from don't touch it to bring it back.
02:38But it came to you. It sounds like it came to you reasonably straightforward just because you were just so well immersed, weren't you, as a child by the voice?
02:47Yeah, I was I was immersed from the very beginning.
02:50I mean, so I was born in 72.
02:52My dad was writing the books for the 70s and he was reading them to my mum every morning over the breakfast table.
02:58And I so when I was learning to speak, I heard 90 minutes of George Smiley every day.
03:03Wow. What a growing up that must have been. And your dad, what would he be saying now?
03:12He'd want to know what I was getting from it creatively.
03:17He'd want to know, you know, why have you chosen to do this?
03:19How is this expanding your ability or stretching your your capability?
03:25And the answer is, I get to hold the levers of the Smiley machine and see how he did it.
03:30He was an extraordinary writer. And that's a creative apprenticeship I didn't get while he was alive because we didn't really talk about writing.
03:37He just sort of did it. And I saw and I learned from watching.
03:41But to sit in the chair is different again. And I'm learning and being made to stretch by it.
03:47And you use that word apprenticeship, which instantly begs the question, well, that's got to lead to something.
03:52What next? Is this the first of many?
03:57So until until the press coverage landed on the 20th and 21st of October, I was able to soft pedal the answer to that question and say, well, I have to wait and see how it goes.
04:07So it probably is the first of at least two.
04:11We haven't done another deal, but but I think we'd all like to.
04:15And then in the meantime, you know, I still get to be Nick Harkaway.
04:19That's my I write as Nick Harkaway. I still get to be him.
04:21And I've got a Nick Harkaway novel coming out in April next year called Sleeper Beach.
04:27So I'm going to I'm going to have to alternate and where a lot of diverging as a person, clearly.
04:34Well, I think I'd like to think it's kind of coming together, but it might be it could go either way.
04:38Fantastic. Well, congratulations on the book.
04:40Nick, you're coming to Chichester on November the 28th at Waterstones, isn't it?
04:46To talk about the. Yes, with Greg Moss. Exactly. Brilliant.
04:50Lovely to speak to you. Congratulations on the book. Thank you.