Vivian Hubert Howard Green was Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford. Quite a proper gentleman, he lectured on ecclesiastical history at St. Augustine’s College in Canterbury before his position at Lincoln College. At St. Augustine’s he was asked if he would consider sitting for the ordination exams. He declined, explaining that as the ecclesiastical lecturer he would be grading the exams, so taking the exam himself would “present a problem.” He was ordained though, a few years later, and returned to Lincoln College as its chaplain in 1951. In the interim he had served at Sherborne School as the assistant headmaster.
Green had a remarkable influence on many of his young students while he was at Sherborne. He maintained friendships with many of them after they went on to higher education, and among them was David Cornwell. Cornwell was a good student, but disliked the environment and discipline enforced by his housemaster. He eventually transferred schools, but kept in touch with Green for many years.
Cornwell had a difficult childhood. His father was part of the London crime organization The Firm, run by the infamous Kray twins. They were the kings of the London underworld, and at the same time well known because of their connections with the entertainers in their nightclubs. including Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland. Ronnie Cornwell, David’s father, was just a minor player in the gang, and landed in prison at least once. David Cornwell wasn’t close to his father, and didn’t meet his mother until he was 21.
One person he did meet, though, was Baron Clanmorris, whose everyday name was John Bingham. As an adult, Cornwell worked with Bingham and the two became close. Bingham had an idea for a side career, and in 1952 published his first novel, My Name is Michael Sibley. It’s a mystery thriller set in London, with the backdrop of organized crime very much like what the Kray twins presided over in real life. The book wasn’t a masterpiece — really it was just a 1950s pulp fiction book — but it was successful enough that Bingham went on to publish 16 more books, and became a full-time novelist.
Cornwell looked up to Bingham, and for his part, Bingham encouraged Cornwell to start writing some of the stories he knew about. Even though he didn’t have a great deal of contact with his father, Cornwell still knew a fair amount about what went on in the London underworld. Not all of it was from his father, though. He had some stories he could tell based on his job, too. Hardly anybody knew it, but he was a covert operative for the British internal security service, MI-5.
When he heard about the idea, Vivian Green also encouraged Cornwell to start writing, and the two friends finally convinced him. Cornwell’s first novel was published in 1961. Like Bingham, Cornwell eventually became a full-time writer. But because he’d started writing when he still worked for the secret service, he never published anything under his own name. Instead he made one up: John le Carré. His most famous character, George Smiley, is based on his two friends, Vivian Green and John Bingham.
As le Carré, Cornwell published eleven George Smiley novels, eleven more that aren’t related to Smiley, and four nonfiction books. Ten of his books have been adapted for screenplays, and he wrote three of those, too. If that wasn’t enough, he acted in four films, and was the executive producer of six of them. And if that wasn’t enough, well, he was born October 19 in 1931.
