John Le Carre

[Poetman]

Can anyone identify the pen Le Carre uses in the attached links?

 

 

 

I've seen what him use what seems to be a Parker elsewhere but have no idea what he uses above.

 

Edited April 6, 2018 by Poetman

[Poetman]

Whatever the specific pen model, it seems to take Parker refills because at 3:50 in this clip he is refilling it from a box with the Parker symbol marked rollerball refill.

 

[Poetman]

Here's another up-close shot of his pen

[Gerd W]

First pen is a modern Parker Duofold Mk II Rollerball, cap seems to be fixed wit tape… The pen below in black matte may be a new Parker Sonnet Rollerball, but I'm not really sure.

Older pics show famous Mr Le Carré writing with his Duofold Mk I (1987 - 1996).

[Poetman]

Thank you--do the older pics indicate a rb as well or a fp?

[Gerd W]

You're wellcome! All pictures showing Mr Le Carré using pens, which I have seen during the last thirty years, he was writing with Parkers, almost always RBs.

[Poetman]

After some further hunting, all the images I found show the same. Thank you again!

[Gerd W]

Again, you're welcome! Fabulous writer, interesting subject, IMO.

[oregano]

Nice! Makes me want to get a Parker rollerball

[Conan the Grammarian]

Makes me want to re-read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

[oregano]

Does anyone know if Parker rollerballs are compatible with Montblanc classique refills?

[sandy101]

Hello. I paid a visit to the Bodelian yesterday which and an exhibition of John Le Carre. 

 

It was called tradecraft - and it showed the drafts, correpsondance and various ephermeral pictures and notebooks that went into the creation of Le Carre's work.

 

it featured John Le Carre's pen - a Parker centennial(?) duofold rollerball - with tape. It looked like a version from the 90's.

 

It seems like Le Carre wrote mostly by hand  - and his (2nd) wife typed the drafts up for him. Both the handwritten drafts and typescripts had comments on them too from Le Carre.

 

His drafts were on whatever notebooks were at hand. There was a range of cheap notebooks that were commonly  available in UK stores - Challenge, and so on and a big leather journal for research. 

 

Quite a lot of it was single sheets - a first draft/outline with the plot/events written on the left side of the page - and on the right hand side was a list of his thoughts outlining what research he'd need and how he would develop the ideas. 

 

It was a small exhibition, but I spent an hour wandering through. It is its last day tomorrow at the Weston Library at the Bodelian in Oxford.

[Black Spot]

My face would be pressed up against the glass to read the hand written pages of David Cornwell That would be so exiting I am a big fan of Gorge Smiley books, the Karla trilogy.

Loved the Night Manager. Could not put that book down. 

Had a first edition, First printing of the little drummer girl sadly that was destroyed in a flood.