John le Carré

When David Cornwell (John le Carré) died in 2020, his literary rights were inherited by his sons. It was in a nutshell his desire that we do our best to extend the reach of his work to new audiences and secure his place in the history of writing. The company that bears his name is the vehicle for one of the most dynamic literary estates in the world, bringing his stories to new media, working with our partners at The Ink Factory to ensure adaptations in the form of high-quality prestige television, film and theatre, and commissioning novels which will breathe new life into le Carré’s narrative worlds. In this generation its work is overseen by his sons Simon, Stephen and Nicholas Cornwell (Nick Harkaway) and advised by non-family professionals including Jonny Geller and Nick Marston of Curtis Brown. Matthew Bennett of Boodle Hatfield law firm sits as a director on the board. Mark Bailey of TC Citroen Wells acts as our accountant. The managing director of John le Carré Ltd is Clare Cornwell, a former NGO director and intellectual property lawyer, married to Nick and herself an acknowledged inspiration to le Carré for characters in his later novels. Nick ( ) is an accomplished and critically-feted author of novels including The Gone Away World, Angelmaker and Titanium Noir. Nick’s much-anticipated new novel, Karla’s Choice, is set in the world of John le Carré’s legendary super-spy, George Smiley, falling between The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It will be published in the UK, North America and Australasia in October this year, and in numerous translated editions over the coming year. The Ink Factory was founded by Simon and Stephen and is noted for award-winning TV show The Night Manager, adapted from the le Carré novel of the same name (as well as for its excellent Hindi-language adaptation of the show), as well adaptations of le Carré’s novels The Little Drummer Girl, A Most Wanted Man, Our Kind of Traitor, and The Pigeon Tunnel. The Ink Factory (www.inkfactoryfilms.com ) has also made a range of films, from director Ang Lee and others, that are not based on le Carré’s work. Clare Cornwell is the Managing Director of John le Carré Ltd. Clare's background is in IP law (she was the youngest ever partner at Collyer Bristow LLP, where she specialised in IP litigation) but she left private practise in 2008 to become Executive Director of Reprieve, a human rights charity concerned with the death penalty, the war on terror and extrajudicial killings. During her tenure Reprieve was able to secure the release of more prisoners held illegally at black sites than any other organisation, and initiated the Stop Lethal Injection Program, which stopped the supply of lethal injection drugs to US prisons and has significantly reduced the number of people executed in the US. She and her work were influential on some of David Cornwell's (John le Carré's) later characters and she is directly acknowledged in Our Kind of Traitor. She moved on to Amnesty and the Sigrid Rausing Trust before taking her role at JLC Ltd in 2023, where she has presided over the expansion and deepening of the company's strategy. She is married to David's youngest son, Nick, and they have two children. Simon Cornwell is the chairman of John le Carré Ltd, and in parallel with that co-CEO, and co-founder, of John le Carré Ltd’s partner film and television studio The Ink Factory, the home of le Carré adaptations since 2014. For The Ink Factory, Simon is currently executive producing the much-anticipated second season of The Night Manager for Amazon and the BBC, starring Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Colman, Diego Calva and Camila Morrone. The first season of the show, which Simon also executive produced, was based on John le Carré’s novel of the same name. The second season, as well as the forthcoming third season, are original stories written by David Farr, screenwriter of the first season, inspired by the characters and the world of the nov