A scathing letter by author John Le Carre has come to light in which he labels Tony Blair a ‘bad Scottish piglet’ and Gordon Brown ‘an unhappy Scottish hog’.
The legendary author, real name David John Moore Cornwell, slams the Labour governments of Blair and Brown for their spending ‘excess’ which left the country ‘broke’.
The no-holds-barred letter was sent by Le Carre to an American friend on August 20, 2010, three months after Labour was deposed from power and replaced by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition.
A scathing letter by author John Le Carre (pictured right) has come to light in which he labels Tony Blair (left) a ‘bad Scottish piglet’ and Gordon Brown ‘an unhappy Scottish hog’
But Le Carre clearly didn’t think too highly of the ‘Etonian’ Tories either, describing them as ‘born-again PR men, sexists, anti-Europeans, nostalgists and eco-ostriches’.
His letter, as well as being hard-hitting, also predicts the demise of the Lib Dems who he said would ‘evaporate into their own hot air’ after entering into the coalition.
The party won 57 seats at the 2010 General Election but only nine in the 2015 election when they were all but wiped out.
He wrote: ‘The Etonians have taken back the ship with the help of some B-list inexperienced liberals who will evaporate in their own hot air before long, leaving the shop to a ragbag of ivy league Tories, born-again PR men, sexists, anti-Europeans, nostalgists and eco-ostriches.
In the letter he writes: ‘The Etonians have taken back the shop with the help of some B-list inexperienced liberals who will evaporate in their own hot air before long’
‘And hooray, we’re free, the country’s broke & we’ll all have to go back out to work or die in the street, which will do us good after the excess of the previous wastrel government that was for the people, by the people, except it was run by one bad Scottish piglet (Blair) and one unhappy Scottish hog (Brown), who emptied the piggy bank for the people while they were about it.
‘Oh, & Iraq & Afghanistan.’
The hand written letter was penned to his friend Willard J Morse Jr, an obstetrician from Maine, US, who he corresponded with for a number of years.
Morse Jr died recently and the letter has emerged for sale from his estate with an estimate of £700.
The no-holds-barred letter was sent by Le Carre to an American friend on August 20, 2010, three months after Labour was deposed from power and replaced by the coalition
In it, Le Carre also discusses the film adaptation of his bestselling spy drama Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and its actors Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
He then comments on attempts to convert his thriller The Night Manager to the big screen by Brad Pitt who he refers to as ‘Bradley’ in tongue in cheek fashion.
He writes: ‘In Oct I enter my 80th year. In Oct, also, Gary Oldman & Colin Firth & a bunch of thesp celebs star in a motion picture remake of Tinker Tailor, starting on my birthday, directed by a Swede in a hat called Tomas Alfredson (‘Let the Right One in’).
‘Meanwhile my Uncle Bradley (I daren’t call him Brad, we haven’t been introduced) Pitt, is supposed to be producing ‘The Night Manager’ for the spring too.
‘And I, thank heaven, will be away from all of it, writing the Ur-novel that calls loudly from the thickets. So life is not dull.’
The ‘Ur-novel’ he mentions is thought to be his 2013 book A Delicate Truth.
The Night Manager was eventually turned into a successful TV drama starring Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie by Pitt’s production company Plan B.
However, it took a lot longer to be made than ‘in the spring’ of 2011 as Le Carre had envisaged, hitting the screens instead in 2016.
As well as calling Gordon Brown ‘an unhappy Scottish hog’, Le Carre clearly didn’t think too highly of the ‘Etonian’ Tories either, led by David Cameron (right) describing them as ‘born-again PR men, sexists, anti-Europeans, nostalgists and eco-ostriches’
The letter culminates in an astonishing attack on the late journalist Christopher Hitchens who he calls an ‘odious little twerp’ and a ‘s***’ despite acknowledging his cancer diagnosis.
He writes: ‘Hitchens was/is a truly odious little twerp, but his canonization advances with – poor chap – his cancer.
‘I’ve always kept him high on my hit list, but I gave him full marks for being waterboarded to find out whether it hurt, & no marks for much else.
‘(He is) What our teachers used to call lmf – low moral fibre, or s***.’
The pair were diametrically opposed politically as Hitchens was a strong supporter of the Iraq War while Le Carre went on anti-war marches.
Le Carre references Hitchens subjecting himself to waterboarding for an article on the torture technique for US magazine Vanity Fair in 2008.
Heather Wightman, senior associate at US based Lion Heart Autographs, who are selling the letter, said: ‘This letter is from the estate of the recipient.
‘Le Carre and he were friends and corresponded by letter for a number of years, although it is a mystery how they met. The letter is as colourfully written as one of his books and he certainly has strong opinions about the political situation in his country.
‘It is also interesting to see him commenting on the film treatment his books received and how he perceived the cast of actors.’
The letter culminates in an astonishing attack on the late journalist Christopher Hitchens who he calls an ‘odious little twerp’ and a ‘s***’ despite acknowledging his cancer diagnosis
Former MI6 spy Le Carre transitioned from espionage to be one of Britain’s most critically acclaimed authors.
His best-selling books include The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Night Manager and The Constant Gardener.
The 86-year-old has often been outspoken about politics and last year, at a rare public appearance for the Medecins Sans Frontieres charity, spoke of his disdain for Donald Trump.
Commenting on his presidency, he said ‘something truly, seriously bad is happening and we have to be awake to that’.
The auction takes place on May 23.