John le Carré is a masterful storyteller and listening to his voice telling the stories of his life is epic. In The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life, he covers his short years of service in British Intelligence and how that paved the way for the writer he became and the opportunities he had to meet politicians and leaders around the world.
This type of memoir could be a bit of a brag but instead it’s like your worldly uncle telling you his crazy stories. I loved it.
There are funny asides and mishaps, like a certain parrot meeting his end due to alcohol in his feed and wrong number phone calls that lead to late-night bar dates. Then there are serious tales of interviewing terrorists and navigating the security around Yasser Arafat. At every turn, le Carré is giving us glimpses into his life and how you might connect real life people to his story characters.
You can hear the wisdom and humility in his voice, along with the cheek.