John le Carré Books

A box set of John le Carré's exceptional and thrilling first five novels, collected together for the first Call for the DeadA Murder of QualityThe Spy Who Came in from the ColdThe Looking Glass WarA Small Town in Germany

**NOW A MAJOR SIX-PART SERIES ON ITVX, STARRING DAMIAN LEWIS AND GUY PEARCE** A SUNDAY TIMES No. 1 BESTSELLER WITH AN AFTERWORD BY JOHN LE CARRÉ 'Riveting, astounding ... An unputdownable postwar thriller' Observer 'Irresistibly readable' Sunday Times 'Worthy of John le Carré at his best' Guardian 'Hugely engrossing ... Both authoritative and enthralling' William Boyd ________________ Kim Philby was the most notorious British defector and Soviet mole in history. Agent, double agent, charmer and traitor, he betrayed every secret of Allied operations to the Russians in the early years of the Cold War. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Philby, Nicholas Elliott and James Jesus Angleton were rising stars in the intelligence world and shared every secret. Elliott and Angleton thought they knew Philby better than anyone - and then discovered they had not known him at all. This is a story of loyalty, trust and treachery, class and conscience, of male friendships forged, and then systematically betrayed. With access to newly released MI5 files and previously unseen papers, A Spy Among Friends unlocks what is perhaps the last great secret of the Cold War.

Three more great ones from this incomparable international bestseller who is regarded by many as the father of the spy novel. This hardcover trilogy features three of the masters most exciting and best-selling stories: The Russia House, The Secret Pilgrim. and A Perfect Spy. A perfect set-up for his millions of fans.

This passionate, epic account of the Vietnam War centres on Lt Col John Paul Vann, whose story illuminates America's failures & disillusionment in SE Asia. A field adviser to the army when US involvement was just beginning, he quickly became appalled at the corruption of the S. Vietnamese regime, their incompetence in fighting the Communists & their brutal alienation of their own people. Finding his superiors too blinded by political lies to understand the war was being thrown away, he secretly briefed reporters on what was really happening. One of those reporters was Neil Sheehan.--Amazon (edited) Neil Sheehan was a Vietnam War correspondent for United Press International & the NY Times & won a number of awards for reporting. In 1971 he obtained the Pentagon Papers, which brought the Times the Pulitzer gold medal for meritorious public service. A Bright Shining Lie won the National Book Award & the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction. He lives in Washington DC. Maps The funeral Going to war Antecedents to a confrontation The Battle of Ap Bac Taking on the system Antecedents to the man A second time around John Vann stays Acknowledgments Interviews Documents Source Notes Bibliography Index About the Author

John le Carre's classic novels deftly navigate readers through the intricate shadow worlds of international espionage with unsurpassed skill and knowledge and have earned him -- and his hero, British Secret Service agent George Smiley -- unprecedented worldwide acclaim.Rounding off his astonishing vision of a clandestine world, master storyteller le Carre perfects his art in Smiley's People.In London at dead of night, George Smiley, sometime acting Chief of the Circus (aka the British Secret Service), is summoned from his lonely bed by news of the murder of an ex-agent. Lured back to active service, Smiley skillfully maneuvers his people -- the no-men of no-man's land -- into crisscrossing Paris, London, Germany, and Switzerland as he prepares for his own final, inevitable duel on the Berlin border with his Soviet counterpart and archenemy, Karla.

Granta is a leading literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom. Initially founded in 1889 by students at Cambridge University as The Granta, it was successfully relaunched as a magazine of "new writing" in 1979. Granta is a literary quarterly with a distinctive mix of fiction, personal history, reportage, and documentary photography.

'The spy ... ': The story of a perilous assignment for the agent who wants to desperately end his career of espionage. 'A small town ... ': Alan Turner, London's security officer, is sent to Bonn to find a missing man and files as Germany's past, present, and future threaten to collide in a nightmare of violence. 'The looking glass war': Uncertain evidence suggests Soviet missiles being put in place close to the German border, while vital film has gone missing and a courier is dead.

"An archive of letters written by the late John le Carré, giving readers access to the intimate thoughts of one of the greatest writers of our time The never-before-seen correspondance of John le Carré, one of the most important novelists of our generation, are collected in this beautiful volume. During his lifetime, le Carré wrote numerous letters to writers, spies, politicians, artists, actors and public figures. This collection is a treasure trove, revealing the late author's humour, generosity, and wit--a side of him many readers have not previously seen"--Publisher's description

At the start of it all, Jonathan Pine is merely the night manager at a luxury hotel. But when a single attempt to pass on information to the British authorities - about an international businessman at the hotel with suspicious dealings - backfires terribly, and people close to Pine begin to die, he commits himself to a battle against powerful forces he cannot begin to imagine. In a chilling tale of corrupt intelligence agencies, billion-dollar price tags and the truth of the brutal arms trade, John le Carre creates a claustrophobic world in which no one can be trusted. 'A marvellously observed relentless tale' Observer 'Complex and intense . . . page-turning tension' San Francisco Chronicle

The enduring novel by one of our greatest storytellers. George Smiley, who is a troubled man of infinite compassion, is also a single-mindedly ruthless adversary as a spy. 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. Smiley's mission is to catch a Moscow Centre mole burrowed thirty years deep into the Circus itself.

John le Carre's classic novels deftly navigate readers through the intricate shadow worlds of international espionage with unsurpassed skill and knowledge, and have earned him unprecedented worldwide acclaim. In this thrilling and thought-provoking novel of Middle Eastern intrigue, Charlie, a brilliant and beautiful young English actress, is lured into "the theatre of the real" by an Israeli intelligence officer. Forced to play her ultimate role, she is plunged into a deceptive and delicate trap set to ensnare an elusive Palestinian terrorist.

Peter Guillam, staunch colleague and disciple of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, otherwise known as the Circus, has retired to his family farmstead on the south coast of Brittany when a letter from his old Service summons him to London. The reason? His Cold War past has come back to claim him. Intelligence operations that were once the toast of secret London are to be scrutinised by a generation with no memory of the Cold War. Somebody must be made to pay for innocent blood once spilt in the name of the greater good. Interweaving past with present so that each may tell its own story, John le CarrU has given us a novel of superb and enduring quality.

"Out of the secret world I once knew I have tried to make a theatre for the larger worlds we inhabit. First comes the imagining, then the search for the reality.' The Pigeon Tunnel, John le CarrU's memoir and his first work of non-fiction, is a thrilling journey into the worlds of his 'secret sharers' - the men and women who inspired some of his most enthralling novels. From terrifying meetings with Yasser Arafat in war-torn Beirut to brilliantly observed encounters with the great figures of 20th century film, from Stanley Kubrick to Alec Guinness. The reader is swept along not just by the chilling winds of the Cold War or by the author's frightening journeys into places of terrible violence but, most importantly, by the author's inimitable voice. In this astonishing work we see our world, both public and private, through the eyes of one of the world's greatest writers."

Magnus Pym, ranking diplomat, has vanished, believed defected. The chase is on: for a missing husband, a devoted father, and a secret agent. Pym's life, it is revealed, is entirely made up of secrets. From the age of 17, he has been controlled by two mentors.

John le Carré's classic novels deftly navigate readers through the intricate shadow worlds of international espionage with unsurpassed skill and knowledge and have earned him -- and his hero, British Secret Service agent George Smiley -- unprecedented worldwide acclaim.In this classic masterwork, le Carré expands upon his extraordinary vision of a secret world as George Smiley goes on the attack.In the wake of a demoralizing infiltration by a Soviet double agent, Smiley has been made ringmaster of the Circus (aka the British Secret Service). Determined to restore the organization's health and reputation, and bent on revenge, Smiley thrusts his own handpicked operative into action. Jerry Westerby, "The Honourable Schoolboy," is dispatched to the Far East. A burial ground of French, British, and American colonial cultures, the region is a fabled testing ground of patriotic allegiances?and a new showdown is about to begin.

Selected as a Book of the Year in 2017 in the Scottish Herald 'The beauty of the prose is in contrast with the horror anticipated by this superbly subtle narrative' Kapka KassabovaIn 1971, on a routine outing through the Cambodian countryside, the young French ethnologist Fran-ois Bizot is captured by the Khmer Rouge. Accused of being an agent of 'American imperialism', he is chained and imprisoned. His captor, Douch - later responsible for tens of thousands of deaths - interrogates him at length; after three months of torturous deliberation, during which his every word was weighed and his life hung in the balance, he was released. Four years later, the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh. Fran-ois Bizot became the official intermediary between the ruthless conqueror and the terrified refugees behind the gate of the French a ringside seat to one of history's most appalling genocides. Written thirty years later, Fran-ois Bizot's memoir of his horrific experiences in the 'killing fields' of Cambodia is, in the words of John le Carr-, a 'contemporary classic'.

The Berlin Wall is toppled, the Iron Curtain swept aside. The Secret Pilgrim is Ned, a decent, loyal soldier of the Cold War, who has been in British Intelligence - the Circus - all his adult life. Now, approaching the end of his career, he is forced by the explosions of change to revisit his secret years. Ned illuminates the brave past of the legendary George Smiley, his hero and mentor who, in one unforgettable evening, gives back to him the dangerous edge of memory that empowers him finally to frame the questions that have haunted him for thirty years ...

Gibraltar, 2008. A counter-terror operation, codenamed Wildlife, is being mounted. Its purpose: capture a jihadist arms-buyer. Cornwall, 2011. A disgraced Special Forces soldier delivers a message from the dead. Was Operation Wildlife the success it was cracked up to be, or a tragedy that was covered up?

George Smiley had liked the man and now the man was dead. Suicide. But why? An anonymous letter had alleged that Foreign Office man Samuel Fennan had been a member of the Communist Party as a student before the war. Nothing very unusual for his generation. Smiley had made it clear that the investigation, little more than a routine security check, was over and that the file on Fennan could be closed. Next day, Fennan was dead with a note by his body saying his career was finished and he couldn’t go on. Page Numbers Source ISBN: B000H305PK

'The British spy thriller at its unputdownable best' Observer SELECTED FOR BBC 2 BETWEEN THE COVERS ________________________________ Nat, a veteran of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, thinks his years as an agent runner are over. But MI6 have other plans. To tackle the growing threat from Moscow Centre, Nat is put in charge of The Haven, a defunct substation of London General with a rag-tag band of spies. His weekly badminton session with the young, introspective, Brexit-hating Ed, offers respite from the new job. But it is Ed, of all unlikely people, who will take Nat down the path of political anger that will ensnare them all. _______________________________ 'A rich, beautifully written book studded with surprises. Narrative is a black art, and Le Carré is its grandmaster' Spectator 'Blisteringly contemporary' Economist 'Subtle, wry and seamless, it's an utter joy, from first page to last' Daily Mail 'A very classy entertainment about political ideals and deception . . . laced with fury at the senseless vandalism of Brexit and of Trump' Guardian 'A fine piece of storytelling' Times

"FURIOUS IN ACTION...TAKES US BY THE NECK ON PAGE ONE AND NEVER LETS GO." --Chicago Sun-Times With the Cold War fought and won, British spymaster Tim Cranmer accepts early retirement to rural England and a new life with his alluring young mistress Emma. But when both Emma and Cranmer's star double agent and lifelong rival, Larry Pettifer, disappear, Cranmer is suddenly on the run, searching for his brilliant protege, desperately eluding his former colleagues, in a frantic journey across Europe and into the lawless, battered landscapes of Moscow and southern Russia, to save whatever of his life he has left.... "IRRESISTIBLE...A sinuous plot, leisurely introduced, whose coils become increasingly constricting. There is crisp, intelligent dialogue, much of it riding an undercurrent of menace. And there is a hero who does not see himself as heroic but who struggles with inner demons as much as with the forces arrayed against him." --Time "AS THRILLING AS LE CARRE GETS...The novel has the heartstop duplicity of A Perfect Spy and some of the outraged honor of The Night Manager and The Little Drummer Girl." --The Boston Globe "GRIPPING." --The Christian Science Monitor A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

Frightening, heartbreaking and exquisitely calibrated, THE CONSTANT GARDENER is a profoundly moving story of a man ennobled by his wife's tragic murder, and a magnificent exploration of the dark side of unbridled capitalism.

A department of ageing British spies will break any rule for the glory of launching a secret agent into communist East Germany, in the fourth novel featuring George Smiley.

John le Carré's classic novels deftly navigate readers through the intricate shadow worlds of international espionage with unsurpassed skill and knowledge, and have earned him unprecedented worldwide acclaim. A man is missing. Harting, refugee background, a Junior Something in the British Embassy in Bonn. Gone with him are forty-three files, all of them Confidential or above. It is vital that the Germans do not learn that Harting is missing, nor that there's been a leak. With radical students and neo-Nazis rioting and critical negotiations under way in Brussels, the timing could not be worse and that's probably not an accident. Alan Turner, London's security officer, is sent to Bonn to find the missing man and files as Germany's past, present, and future threaten to collide in a nightmare of violence.

ABSOLUTE FRIENDS is a superbly paced novel spanning fifty-six years, a theatrical masterstroke of tragi-comic writing, and a savage fable of our times, almost of our hours. The friends of the title are Ted Mundy, British soldier's son born 1947 in a shining new independent Pakistan, and Sasha, refugee son of an East German Lutheran pastor and his wife who have sought sanctuary in the West. The two men meet first as students in riot-torn West Berlin of the late Sixties, again in the grimy looking-glass of Cold War espionage and, most terribly, in today's unipolar world of terror, counter-terror and the war of lies. Deriving its scale from A PERFECT SPY and its passion from THE CONSTANT GARDENER, Le Carré's new novel presents us with magical writing, characters to delight, and a spellbinding story that enchants even as it challenges.

John le Carré 's classic novels deftly navigate readers through the intricate shadow worlds of international espionage with unsurpassed skill and knowledge, and have earned him unprecedented worldwide acclaim. At a small British trade fair in Moscow, a message of global importance is made up of three very fragile human links: a Soviet physicist (code name Bluebird) burdened with a secret knowledge; a beautiful young Russian woman to whom the papers are entrusted; and Barley Blair, a bewildered English publisher pressed into service by British Intelligence to ferret out the source of the document. A magnificent story of love, betrayal, and courage, "The Russia House" catches history in the act.

Two young lovers find themselves in the darkening basement of an anonymous house in Bloomsbury. In the same room sit two members of Britain's intelligence service. And they want information. The couple, Perry and Gail, have just returned from holiday in the Caribbean where they met the mysterious Dima, a Russian millionaire in fear for his life. The Russian thinks that only the unlikely figure of Perry can save him. And Dima has cash - and he is prepared to pay. Their meeting will propel Perry and Gail on a terrifying journey from London to Paris and on to a safe house deep in the Swiss Alps. When there is that much money at stake, and a British government that needs it that badly, certain sacrifices, even if it means a life or two, will have to be made ..

John le Carré's classic novels deftly navigate readers through the intricate shadow worlds of international espionage with unsurpassed skill and knowledge, and have earned him -- and his hero, British secret Service Agent George Smiley -- unprecedented worldwide acclaim. George Smiley was simply doing a favor for Miss Ailsa Brimley, and old friend and editor of a small newspaper. Miss Brimley had received a letter from a worried reader: "I'm not mad. And I know my husbad is trying to kill me." But the letter had arrived too late: its scribe, the wife of an assistant master at the distinguished Carne School, was already dead. So George Smiley went to Carne to listen, ask questions, and think. And to uncover, layer by layer, the complex network of skeletons and hatreds that comprised that little English institution.

A corporate lawyer from the House of Single & Single is shot dead in cold blood on a Turkish hillside for crimes that he does not understand. A children's entertainer in Devon is hauled to his local bank late at night to explain a monumental influx of cash. A Russian freighter is arrested in the Black Sea. A celebrated London financier has disappeared into thin air. A British customs officer is on a trail of corruption and murder. SINGLE & SINGLE is a thrilling journey of the contemporary human heart - intimate, magical, riotous and subtly architected, showing us John le Carré at the height of his dramatic and creative powers.

"In Silverview, John le Carré turns his focus to the world that occupied his writing for the past sixty years--the secret world itself. Julian Lawndsley has renounced his high-flying job in the city for a simpler life running a bookshop in a small English seaside town. But only a couple of months into his new career, Julian's evening is disrupted by a visitor. Edward, a Polish émigré living in Silverview, the big house on the edge of town, seems to know a lot about Julian's family and is rather too interested in the inner workings of his modest new enterprise. When a letter turns up at the door of a spy chief in London warning him of a dangerous leak, the investigations lead him to this quiet town by the sea . . . Silverview is the mesmerizing story of an encounter between innocence and experience and between public duty and private morals. In his inimitable voice John le Carré, the greatest chronicler of our age, seeks to answer the question of what we truly owe to the people we love."--

A half-starved young Russian man in a long black overcoat is smuggled into Hamburg at dead of night. He has an improbable amount of cash secreted in a purse round his neck. He is a devout Muslim. Or is he? He says his name is Issa. Annabel, an idealistic young German civil rights lawyer, determines to save Issa from deportation. Soon her client's survival becomes more important to her than her own career. In pursuit of Issa's mysterious past, she confronts the incongruous Tommy Brue, the sixty-year-old scion of Brue Fr�res, a failing British bank based in Hamburg. A triangle of impossible loves is born. Meanwhile, scenting a sure kill in the so-called War on Terror, the spies of three nations converge upon the innocents. Poignant, compassionate, peopled with characters the reader never wants to let go, A MOST WANTED MAN is alive with humour, yet prickles with tension until the last heart-stopping page. It is also a work of deep humanity, and uncommon relevance to our times.

It was a perfectly ordinary Friday afternoon in tropical Panama until Andrew Osnard barged into Harry Pendel’s shop asking to be measured for a suit So begins John le Carré’s dazzling new novel set in contemporary Panama, reluctant host and future owner of the second largest gateway to world trade. Harry Pendel, Jewish-Irish foster child, is the charismatic proprietor and guiding genius of Pendel and Braithwaite Limitada, Tailors to Royalty, formerly of Savile Row, through whose doors passes everyone who is anyone in Central America. Andrew Osnard, mysterious and fleshly, is an Old Etonian and spy. His secret mission is two-pronged: to keep a watchful eye on the political manoeuvrings leading up to the American handover of the Panama Canal at midday on 31st December 1999; and to secure for himself the immense private fortune that has until now churlishly eluded him. And Osnard knows more about Pendel than Pendel knows himself . . .

Salvo, and interpreter specialising in African languages, becomes involved in murkey politics.

Le Carré's hero is Aldo Cassidy, "the nav̐e and sentimental lover," a tycoon caught frantically between two astonishing loves. Trapped with him are Shamus, a wild artist who carouses by day or night, and Helen, the artist's nakedly alluring wife. Who will wind up with whom is only one of the mysteries in a world founded upon spontaneity and feeling

A novelist wouldn't dare invent the story contained herein. That a son of the British establishment could, during a 30 year secret service career, be a Communist agent is too far-fetched for fiction. Here's the story of how Philby did it, of what he did & its consequences; of how he betrayed his country, service, friends & the class which nurtured, shaped & protected him.Authors' PrefaceIntroduction1. BeginningsThe man in Dzerzinsky SquareBoyhood of three spiesThe slave of GodThe Cambridge MarxistsCommitment in ViennaJoining the establishment2. PenetrationThe Spanish decorationThe phony warThe secret worldThe rise of Kim Philby3. ExploitationThe new enemyThe Volkov incidentThe priceless secretsThe Albanian subversion4. DownfallCrack-upGetawayThe secret trialA field agent?Philby's comebackEndgame in BeirutThrough the curtain

In den schattigen Winkeln von Whitehall und Washington operiert eine unheilige Allianz zwischen der Geheimdienstgemeinschaft und dem geheimen Waffenhandel. Jonathan Pine ist bereit, sich im Kampf gegen dieses ultimative Herz der Dunkelheit zu behaupten. Seine Mission führt ihn von den Klippen im Westen Cornwalls über Nord-Quebec und die Karibik bis in die Dschungel des nach Noriega besetzten Panamas. Sein Ziel ist der schlimmste Mensch der Welt.

Marie 'Missie' Vassiltchikov as a White Russian emigree caught with her family in Hitler's Germany at the outbreak of the war. She was part of the cosmopolitan set who managed to maintain a trance-like normality until as late as 1941. Before long, however, Missie became sickened by the nature of Nazi-rule.

Una storia vera per John Le Carré. Un colloquio con una spia autentica, anche se anomala. Jean-Louis Jeanmaire, colonnello dell'esercito svizzero, durante gli anni Sessanta ha fornito ad un diplomatico russo informazioni sul sistema difensivo elvetico. E per questo è stato processato e condannato. Ma né la prigione né il tempo trascorso hanno modificato l'opinione che Jeanmaire ha di sé e del suo operato: non è stato tradimento, ma atto di dissuasione. Per scoraggiare ogni tentativo di invasione da parte sovietica.

A gripping new novel set in the universe of John le Carré's most iconic spy, George Smiley, written by acclaimed novelist Nick Harkaway Set in the missing decade between two iconic instalments in the George Smiley saga, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Nick Harkaway's Karla's Choice is an extraordinary, thrilling return to the world of spy fiction's greatest writer, John le Carré. It is spring in 1963 and George Smiley has left the Circus. With the wreckage of the West's spy war with the Soviets strewn across Europe, he has eyes only on a more peaceful life. And indeed, with his marriage more secure than ever, there is a rumour in Whitehall - unconfirmed and a little scandalous - that George Smiley might almost be happy. But Control has other plans. A Russian agent has defected in the most unusual of circumstances, and the man he was sent to kill in London is nowhere to be found. Smiley reluctantly agrees to one last simple task: interview Susanna, a Hungarian émigré and employee of the missing man, and sniff out a lead. But in his absence the shadows of Moscow have lengthened. Smiley will soon find himself entangled in a perilous mystery that will define the battles to come, and strike at the heart of his greatest enemy...

Le Carré ricostruisce la curiosa, spesso enigmatica personalità del proprio padre, figura di avventuriero protagonista di mille espedienti e trovate allo scopo di vivere la propria esistenza come un romanzo. Il flusso dei ricordi getta così una luce nuova, spesso commovente, sulla famiglia e sull'identità di uno scrittore contemporaneo, che ha vissuto in prima persona mille spunti dei suoi romanzi di spionaggio

In "Sein letztes Meisterwerk" enthüllt John le Carré in einer faszinierenden Sammlung von Briefen seine Persönlichkeit und Gedanken. An Leser, Prominente und Familie gerichtet, zeigt er sich als spielerischer, intelligenter und eloquenter Mensch. Die Briefe bieten einen einzigartigen Einblick in sein Leben und Werk.

Eine Explosion im Diplomatenviertel zerstört die Villa des israelischen Arbeitsattachés und fordert drei Todesopfer. Ein weiterer grausamer Anschlag in einer Reihe europaweiter Attentate, zu denen sich die Terrorgruppe Palästinensische Agonie bekennt. Für den endgültigen Vernichtungsschlag gegen die Terroristen braucht der israelische Meisterspion Schulmann die Hilfe von Charlie, einer jungen englischen Schauspielerin. Als sie einwilligt, einen mit Sprengstoff beladenen Mercedes durch Jugoslawien zu fahren, gibt es für sie kein Zurück mehr. Um zu überleben, wird sie die Rolle ihres Lebens spielen müssen. Große TV Doku "Der Taubentunnel" ab 20. Oktober 2023 auf AppleTV+

George Smiley – Der Spion, der Geschichte schrieb Ein vom Moskauer Zentrum eingesetzter Maulwurf hat die höchsten Ränge des britischen Geheimdienstes infiltriert und ihn dabei fast zerstört. Der ehemalige Spionagechef George Smiley wird aus dem Ruhestand geholt, um den Verräter zur Strecke zu bringen. Aber wem kann er trauen? Ein raffiniertes Spiel der Identitäten beginnt – mit tragischem Ausgang. Ein Agententhriller der Weltklasse - neu übersetzt von Peter Torberg.

Spionroman om den engelske agent Barley Blair, der skal forsøge at finde ud af, hvordan nogle militære hemmeligheder er blevet smuglet ud af det perestrojka-prægede Moskva

"Absolutt venner" tar oss med fra de siste årene av den kalde krigen og helt frem til Saddam Husseins siste dager ved makten i Irak. Ted Mundy er født i Pakistan, moren dør under fødselen og han vokser opp sammen med den fordrukne faren. Sammen med faren flytter han etter hvert til England og en kostskole han aldri finner seg helt til rette på. Den eneste han knytter seg til er tysklæreren, og tysk utvikler seg til å bli Teds spesialfelt. Han reiser til Berlin og blir kjent med den radikale Sasha, som kommer til å få stor innflytelse på livet hans. Sasha blir spion for vesten og Ted blir hans kontaktperson. Når muren faller, faller Teds liv i grus. Ingen har bruk for ham mer, kona har forlatt ham og han har et dårlig forhold til sønnen. 12 år senere er han etablert på nytt i Tyskland og jobber som guide i en historisk bygning. Sasha har tilbrakt de siste årene i Midt-Østen, og dukker opp igjen med et tilbud til Ted ? de to skal igjen utfordre samfunnet og gjøre opprør mot Europas og USAs imperialistiske fremferd.

Bevat de volgende romans: Spion aan de muur (The spy who came in from the cold) Spion verspeeld (The looking-glass war) Bevat tevens de volgende verhalen: Nachtmerrie (Nightmare '66) Marie-Louise (The growth of Marie-Louise) Scenario (George Smiley goes home)

Een Engelse bank, die zijn grootste profijt uit allerlei criminele activiteiten haalt, raakt in de problemen met Russische leveranciers.

Po románu Jeden musí z kola ven je Ctihodný školáček druhým počinem autorovy volné trilogie spojené tajemným sovětským superšpionem „Karlou“... Je rok 1974 a George Smiley se snaží postavit britskou tajnou službu přezdívanou Cirkus znovu na nohy, poté co její pověst a síť kontaktů zničil dvojitý agent Bill Haydon. Úzký tým jeho spolupracovníků přijde na to, že v Hongkongu operuje vážený obchodník Drake Kao ve prospěch Karly a tím britské kolonii škodí; ale agenti objeví i to, že Drake má v rudé Číně bratra Nelsona, vysoce postaveného státního úředníka, a že se bratři mají v Hongkongu tajně setkat. O únos a vytěžení Nelsona usiluje i CIA, sice spolupracovník Britů, ale jen občasný a málo spolehlivý. Aby operace únosu proběhla úspěšně, Smiley najme spícího agenta Jerryho Westerbyho, jemuž se sice přezdívá „ctihodný školáček“, protože jako šlechtic vychodil ty nejlepší školy, ale jeho otec zbankrotoval. Jerry se tedy živí jako člověk na špinavou práci v nebezpečných situacích.

Politickošpionážní román zavádí do Bonnu v r. 1968, kdy Velká Británie usiluje o vstup do EHS a hledá podporu u spolkové vlády. Napínavý příběh, v němž pracovník bezpečnostní služby britského zahraničního úřadu pátrá v Bonnu po zmizelém úředníku britského velvyslanectví a s ními po zmizelém tajném spisu. Kniha načrtává věrohodný obraz kariéristických a politicky krátkozrakých pracovníků britské diplomatické služby a podává svědectví o degradaci britské mezinárodní prestiže ve světě. Doslov napsal Jindřich Volek.