John le Carré, one of the greatest spy novelists, died at the end of last week following a short illness. He was 89.

The Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy author – whose real name was David Cornwell – has been described as an “undisputed giant of English literature” who “defined the Cold War era and fearlessly spoke truth to power”.

Le Carré – who had been in the intelligence services himself – rallied against the idea of spies being glamorous characters like James Bond.

His self-effacing spymaster George Smiley was created as a deliberate contrast to Ian Fleming’s OO7, who he felt inaccurately portrayed the life of a spy.

The writer worked for both MI5 and MI6 during the height of the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s, before leaving the service in 1964 to become a full-time writer.

Many of his novels were adapted into successful films and TV shows starring a wide array of Hollywood talent including Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan and Ralph Fiennes. His 1974 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was first turned in to a TV miniseries in 1979 starring Alec Guinness. The book was then adopted for a second time 32 years later into a successful film starring Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Kathy Burke.

In 2016 his first post-Cold War novel The Night Manager was serialised in six parts on the BBC starring Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie and Olivia Colman.

The show was widely praised and won two Emmy Awards and three Golden Globes.

Despite his international success – the wife of the Russian leader, Raisa Gorbachev, was said to be a fan – the author once said he did not want his books considered for literary prizes.

He reportedly turned down an honour from the Queen but accepted Germany’s Goethe Medal in 2011.

Le Carré was born in Poole, Dorset on October 19, 1931. After attending Sherborne School he spent a year studying German literature at the University of Bern, before enlisting for compulsory military service in Austria, where his tasks involved interrogating Eastern Bloc defectors.

Upon his return to England he earned a degree in modern languages at Oxford University, then taught at Eton before joining the Foreign Service.

It was during his time at MI5 and MI6 that Le Carré began to write down ideas for spy stories, often on trips between work and home.

His first novel, Call For The Dead, was published in 1961 under his pen name, to get around a ban on Foreign Office employees publishing books under their own name.

George Smiley featured in nine of Le Carré’s books and played the central character in his Karla Trilogy, made up of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People.

Le Carré said the character was based on John Bingham, an MI5 agent who wrote spy thrillers and encouraged Le Carré’s literary career and the ecclesiastical historian Vivian Green, the chaplain of his school and later his Oxford College who he said became his “confessor and godfather”.

Le Carré married Alison Sharp in 1954, with whom he had three sons before the couple divorced in 1971. In 1972, he married Valerie Jane Eustace, with whom he had a son, the novelist Nick Harkaway.

Fellow writer Robert Harris said: “I think he will be one of those writers who will be read a century from now.”

Le Carré is survived by second wife of almost 50 years, Valerie Jane and his sons Nicholas, Timothy, Stephen and Simon. A family statement thanked the NHS team at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro for the care and compassion that he was shown. His illness from pneumonia was not Covid-related the statement said.