What do you think?
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Other George Smiley Stories
Call for the Dead (Abridged): George Smiley had liked the man and now the man was dead. But why? Fennan was dead with a note by his body saying his career was finished and he couldn’t go on. Smiley decides to investigate—only to uncover a murderous conspiracy with its roots in his own secret wartime past.
A Murder of Quality (Abridged): Miss Ailsa Brimley is in a quandary. She's received a peculiar letter from Mrs Stella Rode, saying that she fears her husband is trying to kill her. Reluctant to go to the police, Miss Brimley calls upon her old wartime colleague, George Smiley. Unfortunately, it's too late. Mrs Rode has just been murdered. To discover the truth, Smiley must lift the lid on a world of hidden passions and dangerous hatreds....
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (Abridged): In the shadow of the newly erected Berlin Wall, Alec Leamas watches as his last agent is shot dead by East German sentries. For Leamas, the head of Berlin Station, the Cold War is over. As he faces the prospect of retirement or worse—a desk job—Control offers him a unique opportunity for revenge.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Abridged): The man he knew as 'Control' is dead, and the young Turks who forced him out now run the circus. But George Smiley isn't quite ready for retirement—especially when a pretty, would-be defector surfaces with a shocking accusation: a Soviet mole has penetrated the highest level of British Intelligence.
Smiley's People (Abridged): George Smiley was summoned from his dubious retirement by two seemingly unconnected events—an old woman in Paris is promised the return of a daughter she will never see, and a handover is to take place on a steamer in Hamburg.
A Murder of Quality (Abridged): Miss Ailsa Brimley is in a quandary. She's received a peculiar letter from Mrs Stella Rode, saying that she fears her husband is trying to kill her. Reluctant to go to the police, Miss Brimley calls upon her old wartime colleague, George Smiley. Unfortunately, it's too late. Mrs Rode has just been murdered. To discover the truth, Smiley must lift the lid on a world of hidden passions and dangerous hatreds....
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (Abridged): In the shadow of the newly erected Berlin Wall, Alec Leamas watches as his last agent is shot dead by East German sentries. For Leamas, the head of Berlin Station, the Cold War is over. As he faces the prospect of retirement or worse—a desk job—Control offers him a unique opportunity for revenge.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Abridged): The man he knew as 'Control' is dead, and the young Turks who forced him out now run the circus. But George Smiley isn't quite ready for retirement—especially when a pretty, would-be defector surfaces with a shocking accusation: a Soviet mole has penetrated the highest level of British Intelligence.
Smiley's People (Abridged): George Smiley was summoned from his dubious retirement by two seemingly unconnected events—an old woman in Paris is promised the return of a daughter she will never see, and a handover is to take place on a steamer in Hamburg.
390 pages, Audible Audio
Published July 1, 2022
About the author
John le Carré
321 books9,870 followersJohn le Carré, the pseudonym of David John Moore Cornwell (born 19 October 1931 in Poole, Dorset, England), was an English author of espionage novels. Le Carré had resided in St Buryan, Cornwall, Great Britain, for more than 40 years, where he owned a mile of cliff close to Land's End.
Le Carré died at Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro, on 12 December 2020, aged 89. An inquest completed in June 2021 concluded that le Carré died after sustaining a fall at his home.
abridged from Wikipedia
Le Carré died at Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro, on 12 December 2020, aged 89. An inquest completed in June 2021 concluded that le Carré died after sustaining a fall at his home.
abridged from Wikipedia
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 14, 2023
Tinker Tailor Smiley Carré
Review of the Bolinda Publishing Ltd. abridged audiobook anthology (2022) collecting 5 John le Carré novels from 1961 to 1979 as first narrated by the author in the 1980s.
The abridged audiobook recording has gone the way of the dodo bird in this present day of streaming and digital file downloads. Once upon a time though, it was the only practical medium for audiobook availability when it was first invented by producer Graham Goodwin. As co-producer and abridgement editor Suleika Dawson relates in her memoir The Secret Heart: John le Carré: an intimate memoir Goodwin...
As it happened, Goodwin and Dawson lucked into having David Cornwell (who wrote using the penname of John le Carré) himself come into the studio to narrate the abridgements of several of his novels. This acquaintance also led into the long-term affair of Dawson with the author which she writes of in her memoir.
As I have been in the midst of a le Carré binge since seeing the film adaptation of his memoir The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life at TIFF earlier this year, I was curious to see if I could still find those narrations. Fortunately Bolinda Publishing has collected them in 2 anthologies. This present one uses a movie tie-in cover photo from the 2011 film adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy which featured Gary Oldman in the role of UK spymaster George Smiley. It was not even listed, reviewed or rated on Goodreads until I added it recently.
The cover of the original 1982 abridged recording of Smiley's People as released on 2 cassette tapes by EMI Listen for Pleasure. Image sourced from Brainfood Audiobooks.
The performances by Cornwell are excellent throughout and the abridgements by Dawson are very efficiently done. I've read all of these books several times since the 1970s/80s and I did not feel that any significant sections were missing. This was even though the anthology of 13 hours is probably only 1/3rd of the likely 39 hours that full unabridged readings would require. Only the recording of the 2nd Smiley novel A Murder of Quality (1962) showed any audio artifacts from its 1980s recording era with some dropouts & changes in ambience, which were not very disruptive.
Overall these were very authoritative readings by the author and I enjoyed them immensely. I especially enjoyed his voicing of Mad Janey in A Murder of Quality and the German accents in The Spy Who Came In From the Cold.
Trivia and Link
You can read the 1st chapter of the 1st George Smiley novel Call for the Dead (1961) titled A Brief History of George Smiley at The Guardian, May 22, 2009.
The 2nd anthology collection of abridged John le Carré novels is The Little Drummer Girl and Other Stories (2022). Not yet listed on Goodreads, the link goes to Audible.
Review of the Bolinda Publishing Ltd. abridged audiobook anthology (2022) collecting 5 John le Carré novels from 1961 to 1979 as first narrated by the author in the 1980s.
The abridged audiobook recording has gone the way of the dodo bird in this present day of streaming and digital file downloads. Once upon a time though, it was the only practical medium for audiobook availability when it was first invented by producer Graham Goodwin. As co-producer and abridgement editor Suleika Dawson relates in her memoir The Secret Heart: John le Carré: an intimate memoir Goodwin...
had started the whole trade. He devised the two-cassette, three-hour abridged reading as a product that was marketable at the price of a paperback and would suit factory requirements in production – C90 cassettes being the longest that were reliable for copying from the master tapes – then pitched the first six titles to EMI in the late seventies.
As it happened, Goodwin and Dawson lucked into having David Cornwell (who wrote using the penname of John le Carré) himself come into the studio to narrate the abridgements of several of his novels. This acquaintance also led into the long-term affair of Dawson with the author which she writes of in her memoir.
As I have been in the midst of a le Carré binge since seeing the film adaptation of his memoir The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life at TIFF earlier this year, I was curious to see if I could still find those narrations. Fortunately Bolinda Publishing has collected them in 2 anthologies. This present one uses a movie tie-in cover photo from the 2011 film adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy which featured Gary Oldman in the role of UK spymaster George Smiley. It was not even listed, reviewed or rated on Goodreads until I added it recently.
The cover of the original 1982 abridged recording of Smiley's People as released on 2 cassette tapes by EMI Listen for Pleasure. Image sourced from Brainfood Audiobooks.
The performances by Cornwell are excellent throughout and the abridgements by Dawson are very efficiently done. I've read all of these books several times since the 1970s/80s and I did not feel that any significant sections were missing. This was even though the anthology of 13 hours is probably only 1/3rd of the likely 39 hours that full unabridged readings would require. Only the recording of the 2nd Smiley novel A Murder of Quality (1962) showed any audio artifacts from its 1980s recording era with some dropouts & changes in ambience, which were not very disruptive.
Overall these were very authoritative readings by the author and I enjoyed them immensely. I especially enjoyed his voicing of Mad Janey in A Murder of Quality and the German accents in The Spy Who Came In From the Cold.
Trivia and Link
You can read the 1st chapter of the 1st George Smiley novel Call for the Dead (1961) titled A Brief History of George Smiley at The Guardian, May 22, 2009.
The 2nd anthology collection of abridged John le Carré novels is The Little Drummer Girl and Other Stories (2022). Not yet listed on Goodreads, the link goes to Audible.
August 6, 2024
Meh, might just be me but I felt no suspense in this story.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews