Author: John Bingham
Alternate names: John Michael Ward Bingham; Michael Ward
Born: 3 November 1908
Died: 6 August 1988
Bio: John Michael Ward Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris of Newbrook, was an engineer, former MI5 spy, and an English novelist who published thrillers, detective novels, spy novels, and screen plays. - Wikipedia

Following a spell as a journalist, Bingham was recruited into MI5 by
Maxwell Knight. One of his younger colleagues was David Cornwell, who was
inspired by Bingham’s success as an author of fiction to become a novelist
himself, under the name John le Carré. Le Carré subsequently
acknowledged that Bingham was a key inspiration for his most famous
character, the spy George Smiley. [From the Introduction by Martin Edwards to *The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories*, 2018]