John le Carre, Liese Deniz, Lizzie Worthington and The Honourable Schoolboy

Posted: October 16th, 2023 | No Comments »

As regular readers of this blog will know I am a great devotee of the writing of the late John le Carre, in particular his Asia-set magnum opus, The Honourable Schoolboy (1975). So much so that I’ve written about what le Carre can teach us about China in THS (here for The China Project) and le Carre’s two trips to Hong Kong to research the book (here for the South China Morning Post). Now Adam Sisman, who wrote le Carre’s biography a few years back (2016) has, following the author’s death done another book about his dalliances and affairs… The Secret Life of John Le Carre…

Now, I personally don’t care that much about the man’s private life – it’s the work that’s important to me. But I am interested in where he got character ideas from and the new book gives us one useful one that relates to THS. According to Sisman, one of le Carre’s affairs was with a woman called Norma Dennis, who went by her professional modelling name of Leise Deniz. Leise ran away to London at 16 to become a model, reinfvented herself and started hanging out with Establishment types and minor royals. Le Carre liked her, bought her a pearl necklace and a Saab car. They conducted their affair in a flat in Primrose Hill. Liese, again according to Sisman, helped him research Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and recommended that Alec Guinness play George Smiley – so we have a lot to thank her for.

However, it seems she was also the model for the character of Lizzie Worthington in THS, alias Liese Worth, who moves to Hong Kong from drab provincial Britain to reinvent herself and marries a Hong Kong tycoon-cum-Soviet agent.

Elizabeth Worthington, alias Lizzie, alias Lizzie Ricardo, alias Liese Worth – first, common-law wife of Tiny Ricardo; then, mistress of Drake Ko…

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