The Nine Books that inspired me to write (4 of 9) #4_ The Constant Gardener by John le Carre

The Constant Gardener (2001)

Scott Fitzgerald once said, "There are no second acts in American lives", the 4th book on my list of the 9 books that inspired me to write, The Constant Gardener, proves that in literature, this isn't the case.

Le Carre's incredible return to form opens with the brutal murder of a British national, Tessa Quayle and her driver, Noah, in Nairobi. Her husband, Justin, is a diplomat who sets out to find out what happened to her and uncovers a conspiracy of big pharma, an African aid station and corrupt British civil servants generating fraudulent medical reports on the success of an AIDS drug.

This was only my second le Carre, the only one I read before that was Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Then I set out to read as many of his books as I could. 

The Constant Gardener is, I think, a turning point in le Carre's career; the start of his "Second act". By the time he had written The Tailor of Panama, his style had become staid and predictable. But the seeds for the next two brilliant decades was sown. With the Constant Gardener, he moves away from spies and his beloved 'circus' of MI5, MI6 and the KGB. The Constant Gardener brings a fresh breath of life to his writing and to me, his best novel by far.

The Constant Gardener's strength is that Tessa's character is built in the mind's eye from both Justin's memories and Tessa's friends. Le Carre returns to Berlin in the post-Berlin Wall era, a bleak backdrop to a beautiful character unfolds. It's left to the reader to imagine her awful end, making you empathise with the slightly stuffy Justin. Tessa is le Carre's most realised female character.

Le Carre too, pulls no punches on the West's high handed approach to the continent of Africa, his rage at the exploitation and experimentation of the people rings true today with the Covid-19 vaccines the developed West and Middle East hoard for themselves.

It was this book and premise that led me to re-work the first draft of GET LENIN. Starting life out as 'Operation Iskra', it was my fist serious attempt at writing a book. About three-quarters through, a Polish translator, Eva Molenaar appears. She is the best part of the whole wip. I liked her so much, I started researching more and more about the 1930's especially through the eyes of women. I read Mary S. Lovell's, The Mitford Girls and they provided the backdrop. I then re-read The Constant Gardener and I evolved Eva along the lines of Tessa; writing out her life as an obituary. Eva's adventures at the heart of the Third Reich spying for the Allies, gave me my title and my first novel.

The rest, they say, is history...

I cannot recommend enough, The Constant Gardener, it is a wonderful book on so many levels and by the closing chapters you are as enraged as Justin Quayle.

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