Suleika Dawson

(c) Philippa Gedge
 

Suleika Dawson is an audiobook abridger, noveslist, ghostwriter, and she was John le Carré’s researcher and mistress.


 

Biography

A Telegraph Book to Read Autumn 2022

A Times Best Non-fiction Book for Autumn 2022

A Daily Mail Book of the Year 2022

A Waterstones Best Book of 2022: Biography

Financial Times book of the week

Suleika Dawson abridged and helped produce all of John le Carré’s Cold War novels as audiobooks, spending many long sessions with the author in sound studios as he recorded his own works for the first time.  She was his literary researcher on his most autobiographical novel, A Perfect Spy, entrusted with uncovering long-buried details of his dead father’s errant life, and was also le Carré’s mistress, twice over.

She has a Master’s degree in English Language and Literature from Oxford University.  She is a novelist, a ghost-writer and still occasionally an audio producer.


 

Books

The Secret Heart: John le Carré, an intimate memoir Was published by HarperCollins in October 2022.

'Dawson’s tell-all never once claims victimhood, yet hints at the cost… it’s unmistakably sad by the end.' The Guardian

‘Fascinating’ Spectator

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