Jane Cornwell

(Valerie) Jane Cornwell (28 April 1938 – 27 February 2021) was an English editor, known as Jane Eustace before her marriage to John le Carré (David Cornwell) in 1972.

For most of her career she was an executive and editor at the book-publishing firm Hodder & Stoughton.

Early life

Born in 1938 in Sevenoaks, Kent, Cornwell was the daughter of Robert Eustace, a dental surgeon, and his wife Grace Marley Herring,[1] a daughter of George Herbert Herring, a journalist.[2] She had two brothers, one older, one younger. During the Second World War, the family moved to Devon and then to Northern Ireland. After returning to England, she was educated at St Hilary's School, Sevenoaks, and at Sherborne School for Girls, where she played cricket. She then took a course at Mrs Hoster's Secretarial Training College in Cromwell Road, Kensington, which was known for its "gels for the establishment".[1]

Career

Cornwell went to work for George Greenfield, head of the literary agency John Farquharson. He offered her a partnership when she was head-hunted to be foreign rights manager at Hodder & Stoughton, but she took the job and remained there for more than forty years. She was a regular visitor to Mary Stewart in Scotland until her death in 2014 and negotiated for Gavin Maxwell when his Ring of Bright Water (1960) was turned into a film. After she married le Carré, Greenfield became his literary agent and Hodder & Stoughton his publisher.[1]

Life with John le Carré

Jane Eustace met John le Carré at a literary event in Birmingham. He began to call her "Oysters" after a German at the Frankfurt Book Fair had mispronounced her name. She introduced him to Robert Gottlieb, who became his American editor, and she gave him significant help with A Small Town in Germany (1968), a book which was in a confused state of rewriting. He noted "I find her compassionate, understanding, and remarkably intelligent."[1] Le Carré divorced his first wife in 1971 and married Cornwell in 1972.[3] She helped him with twenty more books, including his last novel, Agent Running in the Field (2019). After le Carré donated his papers to the Bodleian Library, its director, Richard Ovenden, wrote that the drafts of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Russia House, and The Little Drummer Girl showed the depth of Cornwell's part in them,[1] noting "Her participation in the creation of the novels, which was constructively editorial, has been too often overlooked... The early drafts show a deep process of collaboration with his wife, Jane."[4]

As well as gaining three stepsons, Cornwell had one son with le Carré, who writes under the name Nick Harkaway.[1] He has also written about how closely his parents worked together.[5]

Cornwell died on 27 February 2021, a few months after her husband.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Jane Cornwell obituary: Editor and wife of John le Carré who was the only person allowed to read his drafts and left an indelible mark on his novels", The Times, 9 March 2021, accessed 12 July 2025 (subscription required); archived at archive.ph
  2. ^ "No. 125, July 15th 1935, Robert John Eustace, Grace Marley Herring" in Marriages Solemnized at the Parish Church of St Martin in the Fields in the County of London, p. 68
  3. ^ Tim Walker, "Le Carré pays tribute to his first love" The Daily Telegraph, 5 June 2009 (subscription required); archived at archive.ph
  4. ^ Richard Ovenden, "John le Carré’s archivist: papers reveal a painstaking literary craftsman", The Conversation, 18 December 2020, accessed 12 July 2025
  5. ^ Nick Cornwell, "My father was famous as John le Carré. My mother was his crucial, covert collaborator.", The Guardian, 13 March 2021, accessed 12 July 2025
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