Autobiographical Aspects
A Perfect Spy is le Carré's most autobiographical book. As the author himself has admitted, a large part of the novel is a thinly disguised account of le Carré's own early life. Before he became a novelist, David Cornwell (John le Carré) was an intelligence officer for MI6, the British intelligence service, although there are no allegations that he ever betrayed his country and spied for another country like the character Magnus Pym. Like Magnus, le Carré lost his mother at an early age, was sent to an abusive prep school, studied languages at the University of Berne in Switzerland, in the 1950s worked for the Intelligence Corps of the British Army in Austria interrogating Czech defectors, and at Oxford University spied on far-left student groups for MI5.
Rick Pym, the charismatic con man father of Magnus in the novel, is based on le Carré's father, Ronnie Cornwell. Ronnie was a confidence man and associate of the Kray twins, London organized crime figures. He made and lost several fortunes through elaborate confidence schemes, and was jailed for insurance fraud. Le Carré's biographer Lynndianne Beene describes Ronnie as 'an epic con man of little education, immense charm, extravagant tastes, but no social values'. Le Carré's relationship with his father was troubled, and he has said
"Although I've never been to a shrink, writing A Perfect Spy is probably what a very wise shrink would have advised me to do anyway"
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