John le Carré: Tradecraft – a new exhibition exploring the work of John le Carré opens at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library on 1 October 2025 and runs to 6 April 2026.
The exhibition showcases material held in the Bodleian Library’s John le Carré archive and includes his annotated manuscripts and personal correspondence, offering a glimpse into the author’s writing process.
An accompanying book, Tradecraft: Writers on John le Carré, edited by Professor Federico Varese, Professor of Criminology at Oxford University, with a foreword by John le Carré’s son Simon Cornwell, features images from Sherborne School’s Archive.
John le Carré was the pen name of David Cornwell (1931-2020) who was a pupil at Sherborne School from 1945 to 1948. Although, David’s memories of his time at Sherborne School were not always happy ones, his interest in literature and languages can be traced back to his time at the School. It was at Sherborne that he was encouraged to write poetry by his English master Robin Atthill, where his love of the German language was inspired by his Modern Languages master Frank King, where he appeared in School productions of Everyman and Julius Caesar, and where he first met the Rev. Vivian Green, the man credited with inspiring his most famous creation – spy-master George Smiley.
David also returned to the School on a number of occasions, giving talks to the School’s literary societies, attending a house supper at The Digby, and to watch the filming of his novel A Murder of Quality, which was set in Sherborne.
For further information about the exhibition visit John le Carré: Tradecraft
Information about David Cornwell’s time at Sherborne School can be found at David Cornwell (1931-2020) (John le Carré) – The Old Shirburnian Society
Visit Sherborne School Archive News for more stories from the archives.
Posted 30 September 2025 by Sherborne School Archives