Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré

Alas, I have seen none, so apart from the synopsis and little snippets people were telling me, I knew nothing about the book. I will admit that I know of the book and that a few years ago there was a BBC adaptation of it and a recent movie. When I mentioned it to a few people that I would be reading it they all said the same thing, ‘it is a great book to get me introduced to the author’s work’.

This is the first John Le Carré book that I have ever read. Smiley’s mission is to catch a Moscow Centre mole burrowed thirty years deep into the Circus itself. The scene which he enters is a Cold War landscape of moles and lamplighters, scalp-hunters and pavement artists, where men are turned, burned or bought for stock. George Smiley, who is a troubled man of infinite compassion, is also a single-mindedly ruthless adversary as a spy. The enduring novel by one of our greatest storytellers. One of his most enduring heroes, Alec Leamas, perhaps best summarized le Carré’s feelings about espionage in “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.” “What do you think spies are: priests, saints and martyrs? They’re a squalid procession of vain fools, traitors, too, yes pansies, sadists and drunkards, people who play cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten lives.Released – 27th September 2018 (re-issued) His books feature labyrinthine plots and high stakes the greatest betrayals and acts of deception are often internal. His spies are morally ambiguous, genteel, solitary - a marked departure from the suave and high-octane figures like James Bond, who glamorized the practice of espionage. Le Carré worked as a British agent until his literary success allowed him to quit his undercover work to write full-time. He wrote 25 novels over nearly six decades, zeroing in on the machinations of the espionage community and distilling complex interior conflicts into eminently readable tales.įor millions of readers across the world, his allure lies in the authenticity and believability of his novels. John le Carré, who died over the weekend at age 89, left behind a remarkable literary legacy.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré