john le carre

Decades ago, Le Carré worked for British intelligence services MI5 and MI6. He has channeled that experience into more than 50 years of espionage thrillers.

Herr's book Dispatches redefined the genre of war reporting. "I was there to watch," he wrote. "I went to cover the war and the war covered me; an old story, unless of course you've never heard it."