LONDON: British espionage writer John le Carre has admitted he was tempted to defect to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The 76-year-old author, whose real name is David Cornwell, said in an interview with Britain's The Sunday Times newspaper that he was not attracted to communism but was curious to find out what life was like on the other side of the Iron Curtain in the 1960s.

"I wasn't tempted ideologically, but when you spy intensively and you get closer and closer to the border … it seems such a small step to jump … and, you know, find out the rest," the writer said.