He acknowledges that women were often on the sidelines in his father’s work — a reflection of the male-dominated era, and of a complicated life. David Cornwell’s mother left when he was 5 years old, leaving him with his father, a charismatic conman. He didn’t see her again until he was 21. As an adult he had two long marriages — the second to Harkaway’s mother, Valerie Jane Eustace — and multiple affairs.