John Le Carre is no fan of “international gangster” James Bond

NEW YORK - British spy novel author David John Moore Cornwell, who writes under the name John Le Carre, has revealed that he is no fan of author Ian Fleming’s martini-loving spy James Bond.

Le Carre, 78, is not hesitant to say exactly what he feels about 007, as seen during a 1966 BBC interview that will be re-broadcast next week.

“I dislike Bond. I’m not sure that Bond is a spy,” the New York Post quoted the ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ author as having said then.

Now in an interview with Radio Times, he admits he may have been harsh 40 years ago, but he still thinks Bond is not much of a spy.

“At the root of Bond there was something neo-fascistic and totally materialist,” Le Carre, who once worked with the British Foreign Service, said.

“You felt he would have gone through the same antics for any country really, if the girls had been so pretty and the Martinis so dry,” he stated.

Le Carre described 007 as more of an “international gangster” who sported a “license to kill”, and had no real loyalty to England.

“I think that it’s a great mistake if one’s talking about espionage literature to include Bond in this category at all,” he added.

The author admits that his approach to spy novels is far more realistic than the gadget-obsessed adventures of James Bond.

“I had written about the reality in ‘The Spy Who Came In From The Cold’. The Fleming stuff was a deliberate fantasisation,” he stated. (ANI)