In this episode, we welcome Federico Varese to the show. Federico is the co-curator of the new exhibition being held by the Bodelian Libraries showing off some of the materials the library has in the John le Carré archive. He also served as editor of Tradecraft: Writers on John le Carré a new collection of essays looking at le Carré’s writing and research methods.

We talk about Federico’s relationship with le Carré, how he became involved with the exhibition and book as well as his thoughts on le Carré’s writing process.

Federico also reveals where le Carré found real life inspiration for some of his villains as well as what he feels is le Carré’s great strength as a writer.

Plus, what does Federico think is the exhibition’s show stopper item?

All that and much more in this episode.

John le Carré: Tradecraft – The exhibition – https://visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/lecarre

Buy Tradecraft: Writers on John le Carré – https://bodleianshop.co.uk/products/tradecraft-writers-on-john-le-carre

Federico’s website – https://federicovarese.com/

Sign up for the lecture Mick Herron will be giving on John le Carré on December 19th – https://visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/dec25/mick-herron

Jeff’s site – SpyWrite.com

Jeff’s twitter – @spywrite