Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
John le Carré’s 1974 novel, in which George Smiley is brought back from retirement to find a Soviet mole at the top of British intelligence. It is a slow, intricate study of betrayal, loyalty and institutional decay set in the grey Cold War London of the 1970s.
Recommended by 1 Person
Andy Beckett
But that atmosphere always assumes exaggerated form in newspaper leaders and magazine articles, because people like gothic things. You can find them in any decade if you want to write a gothic book. Even in the 90s, not a particularly dark time. But I find the darkness in le Carré particularly interesting because it’s quite melancholic. It evokes a sadness about Britain and the establishment at that time.
Interview · February 2013
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