David Cornwell’s footprints: John le Carré and the Oxford Left in Cold War Britain

In the 1950s, whilst at Oxford University, David Cornwell (better known as the novelist John le Carré) acted as an MI5 (Security Service) informant reporting on his fellow students. As an important case study of state surveillance during the Cold War, I appraise his activities as an informer. I use two neglected but significant sources: first, I draw on the archives of one of those concerned, Raphael Samuel, and on relevant KV Security Service files including those of Samuel’s uncle Chimen Abramsky; second, arguing that it provides a useful, through problematic source, I deploy Cornwell’s account of his activities in these years from his autobiographical novel, A Perfect Spy. I conclude that Cornwell attempted to prolong his undercover activities after leaving university in 1956. I examine the normative and moral dimensions of his actions and I identify tensions between his justifications for his own interventions and his more general critique of the intelligence services.