employer peter guillam
David John Moore Cornwell , alias John le Carré , ( born 19 October 1931 ) is a British author of espionage novels . During the 1950s and the 1960s , he worked for the Security Service and the ___MASK44___ , and began writing novels under his pen name . His third novel , " The Spy Who Came in from the Cold " ( 1963 ), became an international best - seller , and remains one of his best - known works . Following the success of this novel , he left MI6 to become a full - time author . George Smiley is a fictional character created by John le Carré . Smiley is a career intelligence officer with " The Circus ", the British overseas intelligence agency . He is a central character in the novels " Call for the Dead ", " A Murder of Quality ", " Tinker Tailor Soldier ___MASK55___ ", " The Honourable Schoolboy ", and " Smiley ' s People ", and a supporting character in " The ___MASK55___ Who Came in from the Cold ", " The Looking Glass War " and " The Secret Pilgrim ". Peter Guillam is a fictional character in John le Carré ' s series of espionage novels . He first appears in Call for the Dead at which ___MASK78___ he is working for the Ministry of Defence , and later appears in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold . The ___MASK55___ Who Came in from the Cold is a 1963 Cold War ___MASK55___ novel by British author John le Carré . It depicts a British agent being sent to East Germany as a faux defector to sow disinformation about a powerful East German intelligence officer . With the aid of his unwitting English girlfriend , an idealistic communist , he allows himself to be recruited by the East Germans , but soon his charade unravels and he admits to still being a British agent  a revelation that perversely achieves the ultimate objective of the mission . Call for the Dead is John le Carré ' s first novel , published in 1961 . It introduces George Smiley , the most famous of le Carré ' s recurring characters , in a story about East German spies inside Great Britain . It also introduces a fictional version of British Intelligence , called " the Circus " because of its location in Cambridge Circus , that is apparently based on MI6 and that recurs throughout le Carré ' s ___MASK55___ novels .