My father was famous as John le Carré. My mother was his crucial, covert collaborator
“Exactly that: at each turn, fresh problems to be solved, fresh insights and flourishes of invention. And all along, at every step, was Jane, recalling the first moment of inspiration to refresh a tired passage, or asking whether a given phrase really reflected the intent she knew was behind it. She was never dramatic; she was ubiquitous and persisting throughout the body of work.”
A beautiful piece about an amazing collaboration and relationship. But when I read pieces like this, I can't help but wonder what would've happened if it had been a different time or era, so many of these types of stories of wives who do so much (and it was usually wives) make me wonder what would've happened if they'd gotten together 30 years later? Would she still have performed her invisibility trick? Would he have allowed it?