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George Smiley #9
A Legacy of Spies
Peter Guillam, staunch colleague and disciple of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, otherwise known as the Circus, is living out his old age on the 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, and involved such characters as Alec Leamas, Jim Prideaux, George Smiley and Peter Guillam himself, are to be scrutinized by a generation with no memory of the Cold War and no patience with its justifications.
Interweaving past with present so that each may tell its own intense story, John le Carré has spun a single plot as ingenious and thrilling as the two predecessors on which it looks back: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. In a story resonating with tension, humor and moral ambivalence, le Carré and his narrator Peter Guillam present the reader with a legacy of unforgettable characters old and new.
Interweaving past with present so that each may tell its own intense story, John le Carré has spun a single plot as ingenious and thrilling as the two predecessors on which it looks back: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. In a story resonating with tension, humor and moral ambivalence, le Carré and his narrator Peter Guillam present the reader with a legacy of unforgettable characters old and new.
265 pages, Hardcover
First published September 5, 2017
4364 people are currently reading
13041 people want to read
About the author
John le Carré
372 books9,457 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.
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December 16, 2020
”’We were wondering, you see,’ he said in a faraway voice, ‘whether you’d ever considered signing up with us on a more regular basis? People who have worked on the outside for us don’t always fit well on the inside. But in your case, we think you might. We don’t pay a lot, and careers tend to be interrupted. But we do feel it’s an important job, as long as one cares about the end, and not too much about the means.’”
Gary Oldman is George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
Peter Guillam has been long retired from the British Secret Service (the Circus) to his French estate. He is reasonably contented. He has peace and quiet and a beautiful, much younger, French girl, who is friendly enough to share his bed.
And then the letter from his former bosses arrives summoning him to London.
After all these years, it probably isn’t something pleasant they want to discuss, so the question is, does he make a run for it, or does he play nice and show up?
Curiosity wins out over his better judgement. Once a spy, always a spy; he hopes he is agile enough to stay one step ahead of them.
They ask the sphincter tightening questions. They ask the questions that make his stomach do flip flops. The question that Peter has is, where is his old boss, George Smiley? He is the only man with all the answers, but Peter, his #1, knows way more than what he can reveal.
I do believe in oversight, but I get nervous when people are parsing down a series of events that happened during WW2 or the Cold War (or any time in history) and deciding, with the benefit of the perceptions of history, if someone did the right thing, possibly under duress, without the benefit of foresight or hindsight, and wth just the slender facts at their disposal at the time.
People died. Two in particular were Alec Leamas (The Spy Who Came in From the Cold) and his girlfriend, Liz Gold, at the base of the Berlin Wall. Could it have been avoided? ”The odious and corrupt counter-revolutionary agitator Leamas was a known degenerate, a drunken bourgeois opportunist, liar, womanizer, thug, obsessed by money and a hatred of progress.”
And a man who died in the service of his country. Not all patriots are choirboys.
It seems that some descendents of some of those who lost their lives in the service of The Circus are bringing a lawsuit, searching for who was responsible, or is it more about money? Squawk loud enough, and maybe the British government will pay them to go away. We are unduly fascinated with finding someone to blame when maybe we should blame circumstances, unpredictable events, and unreliable information.
Meanwhile, Guillam is on the hot seat.
Oh, and they seem unnaturally interesting in his sex life during the service. Did you fuck her!? Of course, the answer, as a gentleman and a gentleman who does not want to go to jail for screwing his subordinates, is always a polite no.
The circumstances that Peter finds himself in remind me of the Nathan D. Muir character played by Robert Redford in the movie Spy Game(2001). Delay, parse your words carefully, and never get trapped in lies. The best offense in these cases is a best defense. Stick to your story and force them to reveal what they know.
Alec Guinness is George Smiley in Smiley’s People.
Where is George Smiley?
”’To walk, I assume. It’s where he goes.’
‘For how long?’
‘A few days. Maybe a week.’
‘And when he came back. Was he an altered man?’
‘George doesn’t alter. He just gets his composure back.’”
John Le Carre has exhumed the body of his greatest creation, George Smiley. As always, he has a surety about his writing that has not changed with age. Reading this book was like experiencing my own reading past. Did I believe the right thing then? Are the new conclusions anymore right? One thing I do know is I’m never going to bet against Smiley. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that f he did anything wrong, it was in the pursuit of the greater good. I always want Smiley on that wall.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
Gary Oldman is George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
Peter Guillam has been long retired from the British Secret Service (the Circus) to his French estate. He is reasonably contented. He has peace and quiet and a beautiful, much younger, French girl, who is friendly enough to share his bed.
And then the letter from his former bosses arrives summoning him to London.
After all these years, it probably isn’t something pleasant they want to discuss, so the question is, does he make a run for it, or does he play nice and show up?
Curiosity wins out over his better judgement. Once a spy, always a spy; he hopes he is agile enough to stay one step ahead of them.
They ask the sphincter tightening questions. They ask the questions that make his stomach do flip flops. The question that Peter has is, where is his old boss, George Smiley? He is the only man with all the answers, but Peter, his #1, knows way more than what he can reveal.
I do believe in oversight, but I get nervous when people are parsing down a series of events that happened during WW2 or the Cold War (or any time in history) and deciding, with the benefit of the perceptions of history, if someone did the right thing, possibly under duress, without the benefit of foresight or hindsight, and wth just the slender facts at their disposal at the time.
People died. Two in particular were Alec Leamas (The Spy Who Came in From the Cold) and his girlfriend, Liz Gold, at the base of the Berlin Wall. Could it have been avoided? ”The odious and corrupt counter-revolutionary agitator Leamas was a known degenerate, a drunken bourgeois opportunist, liar, womanizer, thug, obsessed by money and a hatred of progress.”
And a man who died in the service of his country. Not all patriots are choirboys.
It seems that some descendents of some of those who lost their lives in the service of The Circus are bringing a lawsuit, searching for who was responsible, or is it more about money? Squawk loud enough, and maybe the British government will pay them to go away. We are unduly fascinated with finding someone to blame when maybe we should blame circumstances, unpredictable events, and unreliable information.
Meanwhile, Guillam is on the hot seat.
Oh, and they seem unnaturally interesting in his sex life during the service. Did you fuck her!? Of course, the answer, as a gentleman and a gentleman who does not want to go to jail for screwing his subordinates, is always a polite no.
The circumstances that Peter finds himself in remind me of the Nathan D. Muir character played by Robert Redford in the movie Spy Game(2001). Delay, parse your words carefully, and never get trapped in lies. The best offense in these cases is a best defense. Stick to your story and force them to reveal what they know.
Alec Guinness is George Smiley in Smiley’s People.
Where is George Smiley?
”’To walk, I assume. It’s where he goes.’
‘For how long?’
‘A few days. Maybe a week.’
‘And when he came back. Was he an altered man?’
‘George doesn’t alter. He just gets his composure back.’”
John Le Carre has exhumed the body of his greatest creation, George Smiley. As always, he has a surety about his writing that has not changed with age. Reading this book was like experiencing my own reading past. Did I believe the right thing then? Are the new conclusions anymore right? One thing I do know is I’m never going to bet against Smiley. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that f he did anything wrong, it was in the pursuit of the greater good. I always want Smiley on that wall.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
February 3, 2018
I love his care with words. All those beautifully crafted understatements and sharp observations.
I didn't expect to see Smiley and company again. I'm glad that I did.
I didn't expect to see Smiley and company again. I'm glad that I did.
September 21, 2017
A reunion book, and quite a pleasurable one. Le Carré gets Smiley’s gang together one last time, knowing the reader will thrill at seeing them mashed against the modern world. It is particularly lovely to spend so much time in the head of the first-person lead Peter Guillam, who is as charming and caddish as ever, and whose misdoings are treated with great affection (there is even a clever wink at his gay retconning in the Oldman TINKER TAILOR film).
The best moments here come with the now aged Peter’s indignation at contemporary spy-craft (a highlight coming when he pretends to need hearing aids during an early interrogation scene), but alas the plot of the book does not live up to the fine character-work. It requires deep knowledge of THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, which is not as good as the Karla novels, and spends way too much time filling in a minor back story from it. In fact, this review itself probably only makes sense if you know the characters already. The antagonist is somewhat disastrous – at one point he just develops an eidetic memory - and the late turns, save for the exceptional last one, are rushed. There is some interest in the interpolated Circus texts, which come in a lean present tense, but they can’t conceal the absence of action in the outer-frame.
Fans will thrill to this, as I did. Le Carré is always a pleasure, particularly with these characters. His is that rarest mix of craft ability and addiction. I wish it were just a bit better, but I am very grateful for it, for him, and complaining seems petty.
The best moments here come with the now aged Peter’s indignation at contemporary spy-craft (a highlight coming when he pretends to need hearing aids during an early interrogation scene), but alas the plot of the book does not live up to the fine character-work. It requires deep knowledge of THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, which is not as good as the Karla novels, and spends way too much time filling in a minor back story from it. In fact, this review itself probably only makes sense if you know the characters already. The antagonist is somewhat disastrous – at one point he just develops an eidetic memory - and the late turns, save for the exceptional last one, are rushed. There is some interest in the interpolated Circus texts, which come in a lean present tense, but they can’t conceal the absence of action in the outer-frame.
Fans will thrill to this, as I did. Le Carré is always a pleasure, particularly with these characters. His is that rarest mix of craft ability and addiction. I wish it were just a bit better, but I am very grateful for it, for him, and complaining seems petty.
June 3, 2019
Peter Guillam, who was George Smiley’s assistant for several years, is an old man now. He is back in Brittany puttering on his family’s farm with assistance from Catherine and her little girl Isabelle. Then he receives a “request” to get himself to HQ in London immediately.
He is then interrogated by the legal team for the Secret Service regarding an operation involving Alec Leamus and Elizabeth Gold; one that eventually cost them their lives. Both Alec and Elizabeth had a child from previous relationships, and the now grown-up children are suing the service and want financial compensation as well as heads rolling. Specifically, George Smiley’s and Peter Guillam’s heads.
Alec’s and Liz’s stories are initially told in The Spy Who Came In from the Cold and I would recommend reading that one first as it gives a fuller background to this novel. I can say, however, that key sequences are covered by various communications that the legal team has excavated from top secret archives – some of them well hidden but dug up and turned over by the Service’s sharp pitchforks.
Peter is instructed to read certain documents every day and is questioned on them. He finds his own lawyer, too, but isn’t sure he can completely trust her. And where is George Smiley? Peter needs him desperately but is technically under a form of “house arrest” until the matter comes before the Courts.
This novel was published in 2017 and John Le Carré stated in an interview that one of the reasons he wrote the book was to “make a case for Europe” after Britain voted to leave the European Union by referendum. This novel is filled with tension and conflicts – of right vs wrong, of telling all and making matters worse or telling little and becoming the official sacrifice. There were aspect I learned about the initial Alec Leamus story that I had suspected and were now affirmed. There were other events that were a complete surprise.
For Peter, after a long life of service, this inquiry hot seat is a terrible position to be in – and where is George Smiley? He is the only one who could release the full information on the operation that ended so badly; the only one who could put out the fire licking at the soles of Peter Guillam’s feet.
This is #9 in the George Smiley series and I have enjoyed all of the books. John Le Carré’s writing and his depiction of characters and events is outstanding. I am in awe of the depth and breadth of his talent.
He is then interrogated by the legal team for the Secret Service regarding an operation involving Alec Leamus and Elizabeth Gold; one that eventually cost them their lives. Both Alec and Elizabeth had a child from previous relationships, and the now grown-up children are suing the service and want financial compensation as well as heads rolling. Specifically, George Smiley’s and Peter Guillam’s heads.
Alec’s and Liz’s stories are initially told in The Spy Who Came In from the Cold and I would recommend reading that one first as it gives a fuller background to this novel. I can say, however, that key sequences are covered by various communications that the legal team has excavated from top secret archives – some of them well hidden but dug up and turned over by the Service’s sharp pitchforks.
Peter is instructed to read certain documents every day and is questioned on them. He finds his own lawyer, too, but isn’t sure he can completely trust her. And where is George Smiley? Peter needs him desperately but is technically under a form of “house arrest” until the matter comes before the Courts.
This novel was published in 2017 and John Le Carré stated in an interview that one of the reasons he wrote the book was to “make a case for Europe” after Britain voted to leave the European Union by referendum. This novel is filled with tension and conflicts – of right vs wrong, of telling all and making matters worse or telling little and becoming the official sacrifice. There were aspect I learned about the initial Alec Leamus story that I had suspected and were now affirmed. There were other events that were a complete surprise.
For Peter, after a long life of service, this inquiry hot seat is a terrible position to be in – and where is George Smiley? He is the only one who could release the full information on the operation that ended so badly; the only one who could put out the fire licking at the soles of Peter Guillam’s feet.
This is #9 in the George Smiley series and I have enjoyed all of the books. John Le Carré’s writing and his depiction of characters and events is outstanding. I am in awe of the depth and breadth of his talent.
November 19, 2021
3.5 stars
In "A Legacy of Spies" John Le Carré takes us from the present day back to the time and setting of his most famous book "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold."
*****
As the story opens Peter Guillam, a former protegé/right-hand-man of spy-master George Smiley, is a senior citizen living on his ancestral farm in Brittany.
The elderly Guillam is summoned back to London by the British Intelligence Service ('the Circus') to answer questions about a cold war operation that went badly wrong. During the mission - decades ago - British agent Alec Leamas and his girlfriend Elizabeth Gold were shot dead at the Berlin Wall.
Now, Leamas' son (Christoph) and Gold's daughter (Karen) have joined forces to sue the British spy agency for millions of pounds.....for the wrongful deaths of their parents.
Two current honchos at the Circus - a man called Bunny and a woman named Laura - are investigating the case, hoping to stave off the lawsuit.
They can't find George Smiley - who's apparently gone deep underground - so they want Guillam to tell them the whole story about the operation that got Alec and Elizabeth killed.
The 'whole story' is quite complicated, but I'll provide the basic outline (avoiding spoilers). During the cold war an attractive East German woman named Doris Gamp - a low level employee of the Stasi - became disenchanted with her life. Doris's Stasi husband was a closet homosexual who beat and abused her....
.....and Doris's Stasi boss was a pig who expected sexual favors. The one light in Doris's life was her five-year-old son Gustav.
Wanting to help 'reform' communist East Germany - so creepy men wouldn't have all the power - Doris began photographing secret Stasi documents and passing them to the British.
The Circus dubbed the espionage operation 'Wallflower' and Doris was given the codename 'Tulip.' Peter Guillam became Tulip's contact, and being a notorious ladies' man, fell in love with her.
Such relationships were STRICTLY FORBIDDEN by the Circus, so Peter kept his trap shut about it.
Over the course of time Tulip passed priceless information to the west. Eventually, Tulip's husband became suspicious of her activities, and exposure seemed imminent. So British agent Alec Leamas, a seasoned operator, took it upon himself to exfiltrate Tulip to Britain.
Unfortunately, little Gustav couldn't go but Leamas promised that mother and son would be reunited at a later time. Alec and Tulip's exfiltration trip was quite harrowing, and provides the major excitement in the story.
In any case, a tragedy ensued and - due to various circumstances I can't divulge - a high-placed Stasi spy called Hans Dieter Mundt was forced to become a double agent for the British. Later, when the Stasi began to suspect Mundt of double-dealing, Alec Leamas undertook a super-secret mission to save the communist's skin and keep him in power.
The task required a female sidekick, so Elizabeth Gold - a naive English girl who happened to be a communist - was roped into the operation by Peter Guillam. Alec and Elizabeth became involved romantically and - when things went belly up - ended up dead.
Christoph Leamas blames the British Intelligence Service - and especially Peter Guillam - for his father's death. Christoph, a big man who's no stranger to criminal activity, means to get restitution one way or another. Thus Christoph stalks elderly Peter, tries to extort him, and threatens his life.
From the point of view of the Circus, proof of this entire cold war operation - which greatly benefitted Britain - would make Cristoph and Karen's lawsuit moot. However, only George Smiley knows the location of all the pertinent documents, and he can't be found.
And that's the gist of the novel. There's also a sub-theme about a possible mole in the Circus during the cold war, who was outing agents to the enemy. Unfortunately this thread didn't really go anywhere (much to my disappointment.)
I enjoyed the book, especially the insights into the spy game and how agents operate. (In grade school I wanted to be a spy, and wrote the CIA. At that time women were considered more secretarial than spy material, so I was disappointed with the CIA's response.....and my dreams didn't pan out. Their loss!! Ha ha ha.)
I'd highly recommend this book to all readers who like espionage novels, especially fans of John Le Carré.
Author John Le Carré
You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....
March 15, 2023
What a tangled web we weave.
A Legacy of Spies by John le Carre is my first (yeah I know) le Carre book and it was a very entertaining and enjoyable read.
The main character is a retired agent called Peter Guillam, living in Brittany (which does sound like a beautiful part of the world BTW) and is recalled to the UK as the British Secret Service faces possible legal action due to a colossal blunder that occurred during an operation back in the days of East vs West in Europe . A couple of children of two innocents who were shot dead back in the day are seeking some recourse.
Guillam is interviewed (interrogated) by two smarmy, young British Civil Servants (one of them is a guy called ‘Bunny’ would you believe). Our retired agent is required to remember what happened many years ago during this episode, when the Stasi and the KGB were doing their thing, as were the Western Secret Services. I don’t think I will elaborate on the plot as it’s complex and I think I’ve said enough.
There are big serves of double agents, spies, codenames, monikers (my favourite being a lady called Tulip), double crossing, hopeless bureaucracy, deaths, mystery and a complicated plot, with numerous (+++) characters.
I did need to re-read passages as I did get lost a number of times. But it was worth the effort.
George Smiley (I have heard of him!) seems like a legendary character and makes some memorable appearances. I also like the way the author tends to make those stuffy, upper-class types look and sound a bit silly. Whether he does this intentionally or not, I don’t know – as they tend to sound a bit silly and are full of their own self-importance anyway – I think.
The author leaned heavily on field reports, Secret Service memoranda, minutes and other correspondence as a mechanism to tell this story. I really enjoyed this method as it provided a sense of realism.
Again, this is not a genre I spend much, or any time reading – but after this effort I think I’ll read a bit more – in fact I thought I just heard le Carre’s Agent Running in the Field muttering something in Russian under its breath from my bookcase. I will grab that one soon enough!
4 Stars
A Legacy of Spies by John le Carre is my first (yeah I know) le Carre book and it was a very entertaining and enjoyable read.
The main character is a retired agent called Peter Guillam, living in Brittany (which does sound like a beautiful part of the world BTW) and is recalled to the UK as the British Secret Service faces possible legal action due to a colossal blunder that occurred during an operation back in the days of East vs West in Europe . A couple of children of two innocents who were shot dead back in the day are seeking some recourse.
Guillam is interviewed (interrogated) by two smarmy, young British Civil Servants (one of them is a guy called ‘Bunny’ would you believe). Our retired agent is required to remember what happened many years ago during this episode, when the Stasi and the KGB were doing their thing, as were the Western Secret Services. I don’t think I will elaborate on the plot as it’s complex and I think I’ve said enough.
There are big serves of double agents, spies, codenames, monikers (my favourite being a lady called Tulip), double crossing, hopeless bureaucracy, deaths, mystery and a complicated plot, with numerous (+++) characters.
I did need to re-read passages as I did get lost a number of times. But it was worth the effort.
George Smiley (I have heard of him!) seems like a legendary character and makes some memorable appearances. I also like the way the author tends to make those stuffy, upper-class types look and sound a bit silly. Whether he does this intentionally or not, I don’t know – as they tend to sound a bit silly and are full of their own self-importance anyway – I think.
The author leaned heavily on field reports, Secret Service memoranda, minutes and other correspondence as a mechanism to tell this story. I really enjoyed this method as it provided a sense of realism.
Again, this is not a genre I spend much, or any time reading – but after this effort I think I’ll read a bit more – in fact I thought I just heard le Carre’s Agent Running in the Field muttering something in Russian under its breath from my bookcase. I will grab that one soon enough!
4 Stars
July 27, 2019
Update: When I finished reading this the first time around, I was seized with a desire to go back in time and revisit all the George Smiley novels. I am happy to say that is exactly what I have done. I started with A Call for the Dead, the first instance of George in print, and have made my way through to this marvelous (so far) final appearance.
It was even more satisfying this go around, and a feeling enhanced by having read with a tremendous group of women who appreciate John le Carre much as I do. He wrote this book at the age of 85 and it is proof positive that he has not lost a step mentally. He is able to recall his characters with clarity and weave a plot that is as intricate and pleasing as his first efforts. What a writer, and how very grateful I feel to him.
Final food for thought:
how much of our human feeling can we dispense with in the name of freedom, would you say, before we cease to feel either human or free? Or were we simply suffering from the incurable English disease of needing to play the world's game when we weren't world players any more?
*************
My original review:
I discovered the best spy thriller writer of all time (and yes, I include Ian Fleming in that group) in the mid 1960s when I stumbled across a copy of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. I have since read many, but sadly not all, of John le Carre’s novels, but certainly ALL of his Smiley books. Imagine my joy to find George Smiley, Alec Leamas, and Peter Guillam could reappear and that John le Carre had one more bit of behind the iron curtain story to tell us.
Le Carre does what few can do...he picks up the past, plops it into the present, and makes it work. I loved this old spy, called to account for a past that can barely be explained to the little snot-noses who now run the Circus, as much as I loved his younger version. And, to think that these characters could be revived 25 years later and still have the same effect is amazing. Proof, as if any was needed, that John le Carre is the BEST.
Did I enjoy it? You bet. The effect it had on me was to make me want to sit right down and read all my Smiley books over again. I had truly forgotten how much fun it could be to read such an intelligent and twisty story. Who knew we would someday miss the Cold War? Who knew George Smiley wasn’t dead to us after all, just sitting in seclusion waiting for us to need him again?
I was planning to give this 4-stars. It isn’t profound in the way that a classic is or life-altering the way some books are. However, I think it gets an extra point for just the sheer joy it brought me...and hey, these stars are mine to give...so a big, fat 5-stars to you sir, and hopes that this will not be the last wonder that falls from your mind onto paper.
It was even more satisfying this go around, and a feeling enhanced by having read with a tremendous group of women who appreciate John le Carre much as I do. He wrote this book at the age of 85 and it is proof positive that he has not lost a step mentally. He is able to recall his characters with clarity and weave a plot that is as intricate and pleasing as his first efforts. What a writer, and how very grateful I feel to him.
Final food for thought:
how much of our human feeling can we dispense with in the name of freedom, would you say, before we cease to feel either human or free? Or were we simply suffering from the incurable English disease of needing to play the world's game when we weren't world players any more?
*************
My original review:
I discovered the best spy thriller writer of all time (and yes, I include Ian Fleming in that group) in the mid 1960s when I stumbled across a copy of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. I have since read many, but sadly not all, of John le Carre’s novels, but certainly ALL of his Smiley books. Imagine my joy to find George Smiley, Alec Leamas, and Peter Guillam could reappear and that John le Carre had one more bit of behind the iron curtain story to tell us.
Le Carre does what few can do...he picks up the past, plops it into the present, and makes it work. I loved this old spy, called to account for a past that can barely be explained to the little snot-noses who now run the Circus, as much as I loved his younger version. And, to think that these characters could be revived 25 years later and still have the same effect is amazing. Proof, as if any was needed, that John le Carre is the BEST.
Did I enjoy it? You bet. The effect it had on me was to make me want to sit right down and read all my Smiley books over again. I had truly forgotten how much fun it could be to read such an intelligent and twisty story. Who knew we would someday miss the Cold War? Who knew George Smiley wasn’t dead to us after all, just sitting in seclusion waiting for us to need him again?
I was planning to give this 4-stars. It isn’t profound in the way that a classic is or life-altering the way some books are. However, I think it gets an extra point for just the sheer joy it brought me...and hey, these stars are mine to give...so a big, fat 5-stars to you sir, and hopes that this will not be the last wonder that falls from your mind onto paper.
September 1, 2025
Love and loss are twin sisters. Inseparable since birth, where one goes, so does the other. This makes them hard to tell apart. Le Carre knows them both well. Loss. Not the loss of wars with victors, but the Cold War. That's the turf which his retired agent is thrown on. Hard. His interrogators work for his former employer. New kids, they have no fears of communism, just of bad press, litigation, and damage to the British brand. Bunny and Laura are the interrogators. They're good at what they do but the old agent is better. This we learn from what he keeps to himself . . . and tells us. Secrets are what we expect from spies. Secrets in files marked private. The secrets here are something different. Not concerned with heads of state, but of the heart. Here is one from our aged spy:
"And no imagining on my part could have delivered the moment when, with the coming of first light, and still no a word between us, she wrapped away one part of her body after another, first standing before me naked and sentinel, as she had stood before me on the Bulgarian beach, then covering herself piece by piece in her French finery until there was nothing left to desire but a sensible workaday skirt and black jacket buttoned to the neck: except that I desired her more desperately than ever."
Some have said Le Carre doesn't write about women well. I can't agree. Tulip, as she's codenamed, is flesh on the pages for me. So, I cheered when he denies his interrogators access to this affair. It's not for file eyes, but ours as intimates when Le Carre writes:
"Did I fuck her? No, I bloody well didn't. I made mute, frenzied love to her in pitch darkness for six life-altering hours, in an explosion of tension and lust between two bodies that had desired each other from birth and had only the night to live."
Took my breath away.
"And no imagining on my part could have delivered the moment when, with the coming of first light, and still no a word between us, she wrapped away one part of her body after another, first standing before me naked and sentinel, as she had stood before me on the Bulgarian beach, then covering herself piece by piece in her French finery until there was nothing left to desire but a sensible workaday skirt and black jacket buttoned to the neck: except that I desired her more desperately than ever."
Some have said Le Carre doesn't write about women well. I can't agree. Tulip, as she's codenamed, is flesh on the pages for me. So, I cheered when he denies his interrogators access to this affair. It's not for file eyes, but ours as intimates when Le Carre writes:
"Did I fuck her? No, I bloody well didn't. I made mute, frenzied love to her in pitch darkness for six life-altering hours, in an explosion of tension and lust between two bodies that had desired each other from birth and had only the night to live."
Took my breath away.
September 21, 2025
An immensely satisfying conclusion to the George Smiley series. The clever plot manages to reference many of the classic Smiley books and plotlines, and also to drag them into the 21st century. This means we learn more about earlier stories and also what happened to some of the characters, not least Karla (in passing).
Although Smiley himself is not physically present for the majority of 'A Legacy of Spies' his shadow touches every page.
Timing-wise this new George Smiley book by John le Carré could not have come at a more opportune time for me. Between February 2017 and May 2017 I read the entire Smiley series...
'Call for the Dead' (1961)
'A Murder of Quality' (1962)
'The Spy Who Came In from the Cold' (1963)
'The Looking Glass War' (1965)
'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' (1974)
'The Honourable Schoolboy' (1977)
'Smiley's People' (1980)
'The Secret Pilgrim' (1991)
...and, to varying degrees, each is wonderful. Predictably, having reached the end of the series, I was left with a sense of loss. And then, to my delight and amazement, a new George Smiley book, 'A Legacy of Spies' arrived on 7 September 2017.
I can categorically reassure anyone who loves the character and the series that this maintains the quality and the plotting that readers have come to expect. I savoured every page.
Peter Guillam, Smiley's former right-hand man, and long retired, is centre stage in this novel. As the novel opens Guillam is enjoying life at his family home in Brittany. One day his peaceful life is disturbed by the arrival of an official letter from the Service summoning him back to England in connection with "a matter in which you appear to have played a significant role some years back".
Guillam is apprehensive. He returns to a very 21st century new headquarters by the Thames where a pair of lawyers, the memorably faux-friendly Bunny, and businesslike Laura, during which the veteran Guillam uses all his knowledge to try to outfox this pair of interrogators. They want to know all about Operation Windfall (detailed in 'The Spy Who Came In from the Cold'). This protracted opening scene is John le Carré at his very best and brings Guillam slap bang into the modern world. From then on Guillam is forced to revisit his former life and consider the consequences of what happened.
If, like me, you have enjoyed le Carré’s Smiley books, then this is everything you will have hoped for and wanted. Bravo John le Carré.
I read this again in September 2025 and have nothing to add to this review
Although Smiley himself is not physically present for the majority of 'A Legacy of Spies' his shadow touches every page.
Timing-wise this new George Smiley book by John le Carré could not have come at a more opportune time for me. Between February 2017 and May 2017 I read the entire Smiley series...
'Call for the Dead' (1961)
'A Murder of Quality' (1962)
'The Spy Who Came In from the Cold' (1963)
'The Looking Glass War' (1965)
'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' (1974)
'The Honourable Schoolboy' (1977)
'Smiley's People' (1980)
'The Secret Pilgrim' (1991)
...and, to varying degrees, each is wonderful. Predictably, having reached the end of the series, I was left with a sense of loss. And then, to my delight and amazement, a new George Smiley book, 'A Legacy of Spies' arrived on 7 September 2017.
I can categorically reassure anyone who loves the character and the series that this maintains the quality and the plotting that readers have come to expect. I savoured every page.
Peter Guillam, Smiley's former right-hand man, and long retired, is centre stage in this novel. As the novel opens Guillam is enjoying life at his family home in Brittany. One day his peaceful life is disturbed by the arrival of an official letter from the Service summoning him back to England in connection with "a matter in which you appear to have played a significant role some years back".
Guillam is apprehensive. He returns to a very 21st century new headquarters by the Thames where a pair of lawyers, the memorably faux-friendly Bunny, and businesslike Laura, during which the veteran Guillam uses all his knowledge to try to outfox this pair of interrogators. They want to know all about Operation Windfall (detailed in 'The Spy Who Came In from the Cold'). This protracted opening scene is John le Carré at his very best and brings Guillam slap bang into the modern world. From then on Guillam is forced to revisit his former life and consider the consequences of what happened.
If, like me, you have enjoyed le Carré’s Smiley books, then this is everything you will have hoped for and wanted. Bravo John le Carré.
I read this again in September 2025 and have nothing to add to this review
September 12, 2017
"We don't pay a lot, and careers tend to be interrupted. But we do feel it is an important job, as long as one cares about the end, and not too much about the means."
- John le Carré, A Legacy of Spies
Le Carré's fiction career can be roughly be divided into two broad, angry worlds (if we ignore his brief, early attempt at crime fiction): Cold War espionage novels and post-Cold War espionage novels. 'A Legacy of Spies' bridges this gulf with one of the great characters from le Carré's early works (let's call them his Broadway House books) by placing one of the best characters from the Cold War, Peter Guillam, George Smiley's right-hand man, into his post-Cold War period (let's call these books his Vauxhall Trollop books). By doing this, le Carré essentially sets up a novel where the retired "heroes" of the Cold-War "Circus" are judged by the lawyers of Whitehall/Legoland/Vauxhall Trollop.
If you didn't think a fictionalized account of a bureaucratic, HR nightmare could be sexy, well, think again. Le Carré's cold genius is found in his ability to show the moral contradictions involved in espionage work and also place that into context to the modern world. This book allows le Carré to juggle both the moral difficulties of the past (Ends>Means) and contrast that with the current state of Mi6 in the UK (Means>Ends). In his struggle to discover if the means of the past were worth the moral costs, while illuminating if the bureaucratic efficiency of the now is effective or even moral, le Carré discovers one core truth of the Modern World: the lawyers and the bureaucrats have won.
- John le Carré, A Legacy of Spies
Le Carré's fiction career can be roughly be divided into two broad, angry worlds (if we ignore his brief, early attempt at crime fiction): Cold War espionage novels and post-Cold War espionage novels. 'A Legacy of Spies' bridges this gulf with one of the great characters from le Carré's early works (let's call them his Broadway House books) by placing one of the best characters from the Cold War, Peter Guillam, George Smiley's right-hand man, into his post-Cold War period (let's call these books his Vauxhall Trollop books). By doing this, le Carré essentially sets up a novel where the retired "heroes" of the Cold-War "Circus" are judged by the lawyers of Whitehall/Legoland/Vauxhall Trollop.
If you didn't think a fictionalized account of a bureaucratic, HR nightmare could be sexy, well, think again. Le Carré's cold genius is found in his ability to show the moral contradictions involved in espionage work and also place that into context to the modern world. This book allows le Carré to juggle both the moral difficulties of the past (Ends>Means) and contrast that with the current state of Mi6 in the UK (Means>Ends). In his struggle to discover if the means of the past were worth the moral costs, while illuminating if the bureaucratic efficiency of the now is effective or even moral, le Carré discovers one core truth of the Modern World: the lawyers and the bureaucrats have won.
August 30, 2020
This is a powerful book, typically masterful Le Carré, full of betrayal and pain and heartless duty, pawns and pieces careening to the doom and tragedy we know is in their stars, and in ours.
I did not want this book to end. None of us do. And yes, I cried. The bell tolls for us.
As usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher’s blurb/summary of the book. Thank you.
A primer on George Smiley which you may find helpful. And yes, I very much recommend you first read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, or watch the extraordinary movie with Richard Burton, perhaps his finest performance. The impact of this, possibly Le Carré's last book, is far greater if you have lived his first.
-
Sometimes I wonder whether it is possible to be born secret, in the way people are born rich, or tall, or musical.
Smiley recruits Guillam, quintessential Le Carré -
We talked, we sat on a bench, strolled, sat again, kept talking. My dear mother – was she alive and well? She’s fine, thank you, George. A bit dotty, but fine. Then my father – had I kept his medals? I said my mother polished them every Sunday, which was true. I didn’t mention that she sometimes hung them on me and wept.
Smiley to Guillam -
"People who have worked on the outside for us don’t always fit well on the inside. But in your case, we think you might. We don’t pay a lot, and careers tend to be interrupted. But we do feel it’s an important job, as long as one cares about the end, and not too much about the means.’
Cambridge Circus 1960
Somewhere along the road between Cambridge Circus and the Embankment, something has died, and it isn’t just the squeak of trolleys.
Peter's new, "gruesome MI6, Lubyanka by the Thames"
Full size image
In today's modern service, the new proprietors are just as lustful of secrets as the old guard, all secrets must become THEIR secrets. Brutally theirs, ripped vindictively from the past and its people, and stolen from today and tomorrow forever.
But who are the heroes here, who the villains?
This is Le Carré "putting his affairs in order", a closing of the loose ends of Smiley's life and his. For 50 years, I'm sure he was asked about plot holes and the actions of Smiley and the Circus spies in the tragic deaths of Alec and Liz in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. So many questions, and 50 years of feeling the loss and pain as Liz is shot, and Alec finally comes in from the cold. Even now I mist up, remembering.
And here we have Le Carrés resolution, the 1960s hidden actions and events, with the story driven today by unlikely orphans of Smiley's brilliance so long ago. The story flows so well but for a serious mistake by Le Carré: He chooses to read Guillam's flat, emotionless reports directly into the prose. Perhaps this is honest, or "accurate", but it's still dull and very dry. A chapter or two we might forgive, but 1/3 of the book? No. A serious mistake, sucking away the passion and tragedy, and much of the tension of the doom we know is coming.
... How much of our human feeling can we dispense with in the name of freedom, would you say, before we cease to feel either human or free?
And in our dark nights, whom do we remember, our tears in the rain? For Marlowe it was Silver Wig (The Big Sleep). For Aiden Waits it was Catherine (Sirens, a masterpiece by Joseph Knox). For Smiley, his Anne. And for Peter Guillam ...
An early-morning flight from Bristol took me to Le Bourget. Stepping down the gangway, I was assailed by memories of [the girl]: this was my last sight of you alive; this was where I promised you that you would soon be reunited with [person]; this was where I prayed for you to turn your head, but you never did.
Catherine has acquired a computer. She tells me she is making strides. Last night we made love, but it was Tulip I held in my arms.
--
I saw Le Carré speak at the South Bank a few months ago on his life as a writer, on his most famous character, George Smiley, and his favourite character, Peter Guillam. It was truly wonderful, a fabulous evening in the company of a genius.
After, he was asked about current politics and he lambasted the creeping fascism in the world today, especially Trump.
“These stages that Trump is going through in the United States and the stirring of racial hatred … a kind of burning of the books as he attacks, as he declares real news as fake news, the law becomes fake news, everything becomes fake news.
“I think of all things that were happening across Europe in the 1930s, in Spain, in Japan, obviously in Germany. To me, these are absolutely comparable signs of the rise of fascism and it’s contagious, it’s infectious. Fascism is up and running in Poland and Hungary. There’s an encouragement about.”
Even today, Le Carré said, Ang Sang Suu Kyi is speaking of “fake news” in Burma.
“These are infectious forms of demagogic behaviour and they are toxic.”
I did not want this book to end. None of us do. And yes, I cried. The bell tolls for us.
As usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher’s blurb/summary of the book. Thank you.
A primer on George Smiley which you may find helpful. And yes, I very much recommend you first read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, or watch the extraordinary movie with Richard Burton, perhaps his finest performance. The impact of this, possibly Le Carré's last book, is far greater if you have lived his first.
-
Sometimes I wonder whether it is possible to be born secret, in the way people are born rich, or tall, or musical.
Smiley recruits Guillam, quintessential Le Carré -
We talked, we sat on a bench, strolled, sat again, kept talking. My dear mother – was she alive and well? She’s fine, thank you, George. A bit dotty, but fine. Then my father – had I kept his medals? I said my mother polished them every Sunday, which was true. I didn’t mention that she sometimes hung them on me and wept.
Smiley to Guillam -
"People who have worked on the outside for us don’t always fit well on the inside. But in your case, we think you might. We don’t pay a lot, and careers tend to be interrupted. But we do feel it’s an important job, as long as one cares about the end, and not too much about the means.’
Cambridge Circus 1960
Somewhere along the road between Cambridge Circus and the Embankment, something has died, and it isn’t just the squeak of trolleys.
Peter's new, "gruesome MI6, Lubyanka by the Thames"
Full size image
In today's modern service, the new proprietors are just as lustful of secrets as the old guard, all secrets must become THEIR secrets. Brutally theirs, ripped vindictively from the past and its people, and stolen from today and tomorrow forever.
But who are the heroes here, who the villains?
This is Le Carré "putting his affairs in order", a closing of the loose ends of Smiley's life and his. For 50 years, I'm sure he was asked about plot holes and the actions of Smiley and the Circus spies in the tragic deaths of Alec and Liz in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. So many questions, and 50 years of feeling the loss and pain as Liz is shot, and Alec finally comes in from the cold. Even now I mist up, remembering.
And here we have Le Carrés resolution, the 1960s hidden actions and events, with the story driven today by unlikely orphans of Smiley's brilliance so long ago. The story flows so well but for a serious mistake by Le Carré: He chooses to read Guillam's flat, emotionless reports directly into the prose. Perhaps this is honest, or "accurate", but it's still dull and very dry. A chapter or two we might forgive, but 1/3 of the book? No. A serious mistake, sucking away the passion and tragedy, and much of the tension of the doom we know is coming.
... How much of our human feeling can we dispense with in the name of freedom, would you say, before we cease to feel either human or free?
And in our dark nights, whom do we remember, our tears in the rain? For Marlowe it was Silver Wig (The Big Sleep). For Aiden Waits it was Catherine (Sirens, a masterpiece by Joseph Knox). For Smiley, his Anne. And for Peter Guillam ...
An early-morning flight from Bristol took me to Le Bourget. Stepping down the gangway, I was assailed by memories of [the girl]: this was my last sight of you alive; this was where I promised you that you would soon be reunited with [person]; this was where I prayed for you to turn your head, but you never did.
Catherine has acquired a computer. She tells me she is making strides. Last night we made love, but it was Tulip I held in my arms.
--
I saw Le Carré speak at the South Bank a few months ago on his life as a writer, on his most famous character, George Smiley, and his favourite character, Peter Guillam. It was truly wonderful, a fabulous evening in the company of a genius.
After, he was asked about current politics and he lambasted the creeping fascism in the world today, especially Trump.
“These stages that Trump is going through in the United States and the stirring of racial hatred … a kind of burning of the books as he attacks, as he declares real news as fake news, the law becomes fake news, everything becomes fake news.
“I think of all things that were happening across Europe in the 1930s, in Spain, in Japan, obviously in Germany. To me, these are absolutely comparable signs of the rise of fascism and it’s contagious, it’s infectious. Fascism is up and running in Poland and Hungary. There’s an encouragement about.”
Even today, Le Carré said, Ang Sang Suu Kyi is speaking of “fake news” in Burma.
“These are infectious forms of demagogic behaviour and they are toxic.”
November 2, 2020
And so my mission to re-read all of le Carré's Smiley novels in 2020 is complete. These have constituted some of my most satisfying reads during the year, and I can imagine reading them again some day, particularly the "Karla trilogy" (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People). Having started at the very beginning, with Call for the Dead, I had the opportunity to observe le Carré develop from tentative beginnings into a brilliant author with consistent themes that see their ultimate resolution in this book.
The final two books in the series, The Secret Pilgrim and this one, are both retrospective in structure and message. le Carré clearly wasn't quite done with these people or the message he wanted to leave about their world of Cold War espionage.
The arc of the series moves from a period 15 years after the end of World War II until the present day, and in large part the novels represent an effort to come to terms with England's (and to some extent, much of Europe's) diminished position on the world stage following the end of the war. The characters, mostly men but with a few notable women, struggle to vanquish an enemy that during the Cold War is as sharply defined for them as were the Axis powers in the war. They have ties to the war through personal or familial involvement, and they see themselves as inheritors of a noble tradition of self sacrifice for a greater good.
Except that it isn't always necessarily "self" sacrifice. Very often it involves sacrificing others, or at the very least exploiting them, putting them in harm's way. Those decisions, generally made by George Smiley, create the moral ambiguity that is omnipresent in the series.
The specific focus of this last volume is to reflect on the long term consequences, both on the individual and national levels, of the choices made by Smiley and his loyal supporters. It plays out well, and upon an overnight reflection, I found the resolutions quite fitting.
le Carré's writing has always appealed to me, although I realize that others may find it somewhat opaque and not worth the effort. He creates incisive portraits of individuals, places, and events by using a few carefully selected details rather than an accumulation. It strikes me that reading the Smiley books requires the adoption of Smiley's legendary listening skills. Be patient and be prepared to infer what isn't stated outright.
Although this book may not be quite up to the level of TTSS, I'm still giving it 5 stars because it's so far above other writing in the spy thriller genre.
The final two books in the series, The Secret Pilgrim and this one, are both retrospective in structure and message. le Carré clearly wasn't quite done with these people or the message he wanted to leave about their world of Cold War espionage.
The arc of the series moves from a period 15 years after the end of World War II until the present day, and in large part the novels represent an effort to come to terms with England's (and to some extent, much of Europe's) diminished position on the world stage following the end of the war. The characters, mostly men but with a few notable women, struggle to vanquish an enemy that during the Cold War is as sharply defined for them as were the Axis powers in the war. They have ties to the war through personal or familial involvement, and they see themselves as inheritors of a noble tradition of self sacrifice for a greater good.
Except that it isn't always necessarily "self" sacrifice. Very often it involves sacrificing others, or at the very least exploiting them, putting them in harm's way. Those decisions, generally made by George Smiley, create the moral ambiguity that is omnipresent in the series.
The specific focus of this last volume is to reflect on the long term consequences, both on the individual and national levels, of the choices made by Smiley and his loyal supporters. It plays out well, and upon an overnight reflection, I found the resolutions quite fitting.
le Carré's writing has always appealed to me, although I realize that others may find it somewhat opaque and not worth the effort. He creates incisive portraits of individuals, places, and events by using a few carefully selected details rather than an accumulation. It strikes me that reading the Smiley books requires the adoption of Smiley's legendary listening skills. Be patient and be prepared to infer what isn't stated outright.
Although this book may not be quite up to the level of TTSS, I'm still giving it 5 stars because it's so far above other writing in the spy thriller genre.
September 11, 2017
Awesome book, all Le Carré aficionados will want to read this. Long dead characters and plots from his heyday are literally unearthed and desecrated by the righteous anger of the 21st-century establishment, anxious to disassociate itself from its Cold War practices. Enough said. The old Le Carré multi-layered, triple-locked plot is there, the truth always tantalisingly out of reach until the very end (and even then), and the characters continue to suffer from the consequences of what they have done to other people in order to win at the shadowy great game. I can't help thinking the author himself wanted to revisit and perhaps clarify some of the more obscure passages of his earlier and greatest books. Or simply enjoy reliving past glories.
March 5, 2018
How often do you sit down and review a meeting with old friends?
You may evaluate a business meeting, but this is something entirely different.
John le Carré is revisiting some of the most freezing cold days of the Cold War, tying up a few loose ends and providing a little insider knowledge which is now safe(r) to disclose to the general public.
It is like finding old friends on Facebook and getting to know what they have been up to for the last decades, just in this case, the exchange of news is sadly mostly about other departed friends.
During this there is the underlying theme of duty versus conscience, a theme John le Carré has spent most of his writer´s career exploring.
Not surprisingly he is hitting at the tendency to look at every historical event through modern eyes, our tendency to put blame on people – and not any secret service in particular – without taking the circumstances under which they lived and acted into consideration.
John le Carré masters the art of setting up a moral compass, to demonstrate that circumstances may direct you away – or astray from what you feel is right and just, and in most cases you realize there are stuff you have to live with, like it or not.
You may evaluate a business meeting, but this is something entirely different.
John le Carré is revisiting some of the most freezing cold days of the Cold War, tying up a few loose ends and providing a little insider knowledge which is now safe(r) to disclose to the general public.
It is like finding old friends on Facebook and getting to know what they have been up to for the last decades, just in this case, the exchange of news is sadly mostly about other departed friends.
During this there is the underlying theme of duty versus conscience, a theme John le Carré has spent most of his writer´s career exploring.
Not surprisingly he is hitting at the tendency to look at every historical event through modern eyes, our tendency to put blame on people – and not any secret service in particular – without taking the circumstances under which they lived and acted into consideration.
John le Carré masters the art of setting up a moral compass, to demonstrate that circumstances may direct you away – or astray from what you feel is right and just, and in most cases you realize there are stuff you have to live with, like it or not.
April 26, 2021
4 ☆
As a teenager during WWII, Peter Guillam had provided courier services on behalf of Great Britain. Eventually, George Smiley officially recruited him to join the Circus ie. the British Secret Intelligence Service.
In A Legacy of Spies, Guillam has retired to his family farm in Brittany after a long and eventful career, which included a stint as a trusted adjunct to Smiley during his reign as Chief. And Guillam had performed his duty without much questioning his superiors.
But a peremptory summons to the Service's headquarters in London sets Guillam on a very uncomfortable path. The Cold War may be over, but Guillam is being called to accountability for his actions during the heretofore mentioned Operation Windfall. What's dismaying is that he's facing judgment for old decisions but being evaluated with modern standards.
Bunny Butterfield, the Legal Adviser to the Chief of Service, and Laura, another lawyer, tag team Guillam in an increasingly intense inquisition about events from The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, which had transpired about 50 years ago.
Guillam has pulled out all his old tactics to protect secrets but he hadn't expected to practice them against the masters who had taught them to him. As the back story of Alec Leamas' mission is revealed, the tension escalates from learning the convoluted reality that Leamas had faced and from Guillam's mushrooming legal jeopardy.
A Legacy of Spies was released in 2017, and le Carré's stories had typically been set in the year before the books' publication. But not this one, because le Carré had fudged many a pre-established timeline from the earlier novels in the Smiley series in order to make this one work. If my memories of the preceding books hadn't been so fresh, I would say that A Legacy of Spies was pretty gripping. Out of the 9 novels in the Smiley series, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold had delivered the most heart-breaking payload. And yet, A Legacy of Spies managed to augment its devastating potency. Unfortunately the many inconsistencies distracted me from becoming fully immersed into this plotline. If I work off of the ages in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, then Guillam would be in his 80s and Smiley would be 100+. But a positive rating overall because it's good to be back in Smiley's world, especially as this is the very last one.
As a teenager during WWII, Peter Guillam had provided courier services on behalf of Great Britain. Eventually, George Smiley officially recruited him to join the Circus ie. the British Secret Intelligence Service.
We don’t pay a lot, and careers tend to be interrupted. But we do feel it’s an important job, as long as one cares about the end, and not too much about the means.
In A Legacy of Spies, Guillam has retired to his family farm in Brittany after a long and eventful career, which included a stint as a trusted adjunct to Smiley during his reign as Chief. And Guillam had performed his duty without much questioning his superiors.
But a peremptory summons to the Service's headquarters in London sets Guillam on a very uncomfortable path. The Cold War may be over, but Guillam is being called to accountability for his actions during the heretofore mentioned Operation Windfall. What's dismaying is that he's facing judgment for old decisions but being evaluated with modern standards.
...how much of our human feeling can we dispense with in the name of freedom, would you say, before we cease to feel either human or free? Or were we simply suffering from the incurable English disease of needing to play the world’s game when we weren’t world players any more?
Bunny Butterfield, the Legal Adviser to the Chief of Service, and Laura, another lawyer, tag team Guillam in an increasingly intense inquisition about events from The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, which had transpired about 50 years ago.
In any interrogation, denial is the tipping point. Never mind the courtesies that went before. From the moment of denial, things are never going to be the same.
Guillam has pulled out all his old tactics to protect secrets but he hadn't expected to practice them against the masters who had taught them to him. As the back story of Alec Leamas' mission is revealed, the tension escalates from learning the convoluted reality that Leamas had faced and from Guillam's mushrooming legal jeopardy.
This is what Alec went through, I'm thinking: defending a hopeless cause and watching it fall apart in his hands ... I'm clinging for dear life to a great untenable lie I promised I'd never betray, and it's sinking under my weight.
A Legacy of Spies was released in 2017, and le Carré's stories had typically been set in the year before the books' publication. But not this one, because le Carré had fudged many a pre-established timeline from the earlier novels in the Smiley series in order to make this one work. If my memories of the preceding books hadn't been so fresh, I would say that A Legacy of Spies was pretty gripping. Out of the 9 novels in the Smiley series, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold had delivered the most heart-breaking payload. And yet, A Legacy of Spies managed to augment its devastating potency. Unfortunately the many inconsistencies distracted me from becoming fully immersed into this plotline. If I work off of the ages in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, then Guillam would be in his 80s and Smiley would be 100+. But a positive rating overall because it's good to be back in Smiley's world, especially as this is the very last one.
April 25, 2020
I was excited to start this book, and the early chapters were fascinating ... but then the complications built on complexities, characters were introduced or renamed, and it just got too much for me to follow ... of course there are flashes of le Carre brilliance, but not enough to reveal what is going on in this story
UPDATE ... now I read the reviews of my GR friends, I will give it another shot
UPDATE ... I finished the book ... parts were just a wonderful read ... descriptions, dialogue, twists and turns in the le Carre style ... but I'm still not sure I know what happened, which I guess is the point
the references to other le Carre books I have read were nostalgic and well done ... never obvious but slipped in and read before registering ... then go back and re-read and remember
UPDATE ... now I read the reviews of my GR friends, I will give it another shot
UPDATE ... I finished the book ... parts were just a wonderful read ... descriptions, dialogue, twists and turns in the le Carre style ... but I'm still not sure I know what happened, which I guess is the point
the references to other le Carre books I have read were nostalgic and well done ... never obvious but slipped in and read before registering ... then go back and re-read and remember
August 25, 2018
This book was wonderful. It sucked me in right away.
A word of caution after reading this. Don’t read the Smiley books out of order. They all tie into one another and this sews up the whole series. It especially references back to “The Spy Who Came In From The Cold” and “Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy”. So if this is your first reading of a Smiley book, there is going to be some confusion.
Saying anymore about this book will spoil the outcome.
I especially hope this will not be the last LeCarre novel.
A word of caution after reading this. Don’t read the Smiley books out of order. They all tie into one another and this sews up the whole series. It especially references back to “The Spy Who Came In From The Cold” and “Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy”. So if this is your first reading of a Smiley book, there is going to be some confusion.
Saying anymore about this book will spoil the outcome.
I especially hope this will not be the last LeCarre novel.
September 3, 2017
As ever, Le Carre is the master of narratives of dissimulation and regret at the lies that have fractured the lives of his protagonists. This book is entrancing, lovely even, in it's exploration of the life of a former spy, Peter Guillam, whose actions and sacrifices are being questioned in the post-cold war world, all the more so because his training in secrecy and non-disclosure means he doles out as much mis-information as revelations during interrogation.
Ironically, the spies of the modern era cannot determine what the spies of yesterday were up to behind the operation Le Carre related in his breakthrough book, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. Will the current government hang Peter out to dry for apparent sins done in the name of fighting communism? How much of the truth can be revealed, and to whom? Is Peter a scapegoat or an engineer of human tragedy that deserves to be punished? As a narrator his prevarications will leave you teetering between these perspectives until the very end. The ending itself is set up brilliantly, but sputters a bit in the final pages -- there are no fireworks, instead a dying away to embers. Fitting perhaps as the Cold War itself dissipated in a moment of euphoria to be replaced with new tensions and new subterfuges that call for different sorts of spies.
The book gains strength in being by read as a companion piece to The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, as well as resonating with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: The Karla Trilogy Book 1 (George Smiley. It can be read independently, but will spoil both of the those books for readers who are new to the world of The Circus and George Smiley. Take the time to read the first book, it's short and well worth it, before you tackle this one.
It isn't the best of Le Carre's novels about the men and women, ordinary in so many ways, yet who made extraordinary sacrifices to live hidden and dangerous lives. As always, the sub-text here looks to confront what that battle hoped to gain, was the cause just? Were all of the players entering the game for same ends? It is a question the book leaves to be decided, but the novel itself serves as an appropriate epitaph that speaks volumes to the unrelenting forces of history that always find ways to grind up and spit up people who try to make the world a better place.
Ironically, the spies of the modern era cannot determine what the spies of yesterday were up to behind the operation Le Carre related in his breakthrough book, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. Will the current government hang Peter out to dry for apparent sins done in the name of fighting communism? How much of the truth can be revealed, and to whom? Is Peter a scapegoat or an engineer of human tragedy that deserves to be punished? As a narrator his prevarications will leave you teetering between these perspectives until the very end. The ending itself is set up brilliantly, but sputters a bit in the final pages -- there are no fireworks, instead a dying away to embers. Fitting perhaps as the Cold War itself dissipated in a moment of euphoria to be replaced with new tensions and new subterfuges that call for different sorts of spies.
The book gains strength in being by read as a companion piece to The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, as well as resonating with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: The Karla Trilogy Book 1 (George Smiley. It can be read independently, but will spoil both of the those books for readers who are new to the world of The Circus and George Smiley. Take the time to read the first book, it's short and well worth it, before you tackle this one.
It isn't the best of Le Carre's novels about the men and women, ordinary in so many ways, yet who made extraordinary sacrifices to live hidden and dangerous lives. As always, the sub-text here looks to confront what that battle hoped to gain, was the cause just? Were all of the players entering the game for same ends? It is a question the book leaves to be decided, but the novel itself serves as an appropriate epitaph that speaks volumes to the unrelenting forces of history that always find ways to grind up and spit up people who try to make the world a better place.
April 8, 2021
This is a novel narrated in first person voice by an elderly retired former British MI6 agent who has been summoned to answer questions associated with an investigation into a covert operation that took place in the late 1950s. In the context of cold war spy craft it was one of those operations that required extraordinary tactics that happened to have an unfortunate ending. However, in the context of today’s litigious rearview-mirror judgments it now appears to have been a criminal betrayal of their own agents.
Now, many years later, the adult children of the agents who died in the cold war era operation are suing the British government for wrongful death of their parents. The government lawyers want to know exactly what happened, and the records of the operation have been sealed in top secret storage. There is the possibility that our retired agent may end up being the targeted scapegoat for activities that the government doesn’t want to own.
At the very beginning of the book our narrator lays out what the contents of this book are going to be.
This book is the story of an old man reviewing past actions taken within a geopolitical environment that no longer exists. Near the end of the book our narrator muses his world-weary angst.
Now, many years later, the adult children of the agents who died in the cold war era operation are suing the British government for wrongful death of their parents. The government lawyers want to know exactly what happened, and the records of the operation have been sealed in top secret storage. There is the possibility that our retired agent may end up being the targeted scapegoat for activities that the government doesn’t want to own.
At the very beginning of the book our narrator lays out what the contents of this book are going to be.
What follows is a truthful account, as best I am able to provide it, of my role in the British deception operation, code named Windfall, that was mounted against the East German Intelligence Service (Stasi) in the late nineteen fifties and early sixties and resulted in the death of the best British secret agent I ever worked with, and of the innocent woman for whom he gave his life.The above described plot outline may have the ring of familiarity for readers who have read le Carré’s earlier novel The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. Indeed, that is the operation that is being pulled out from the past records for investigation. Thus as the investigation continues this book turns out to cover the story leading up to that case and some of the things that happened later—i.e. both prequel and sequel.
This book is the story of an old man reviewing past actions taken within a geopolitical environment that no longer exists. Near the end of the book our narrator muses his world-weary angst.
“How much of our human feeling can we dispense with in the name of freedom, would you say, before we cease to feel either human or free?”The book’s ending is a bit ambiguous and open ended. I suppose it leaves the door open for more novels from this author. I’ve not read other works by le Carré, and I presume readers familiar with this other books will understand and appreciate its story more than me.
December 13, 2022
Stinker, Ailer, Blunder, Cry
Review of the Penguin Books Canada paperback edition (2018) of the 2017 original hardcover
I did not care for this revisionist version of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold.
Review of the Penguin Books Canada paperback edition (2018) of the 2017 original hardcover
I did not care for this revisionist version of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold.
September 15, 2017
A Legacy of Spies is virtuoso spy-writer John le Carré revisiting George Smiley and his Circus agency cohorts in a sequel to The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. The main character this time, however, is Peter Guillam, the chief lieutenant to M16’s Sensei Wu, George Smiley. Long retired, the elderly Guillam is called to London due to several lawsuits threatening to expose the Cold War subterfuge from the early 1960’s (the events that comprise The Spy Who Came In From The Cold). To be honest, the spy agency is not exactly sure what has occurred during these top-secret operations and unable to find George Smiley, their lawyers have procured Guillam to answer their questions. Unsure of the angles the other players are working, Guillam is about as forthcoming as a college freshman telling his folks what happened at the kegger last Friday night. But slowly the memories from his past begin to connect like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle.
Told mainly from recollections and pilfered top-secret documents; and relying heavily on the incidents from the previous novels, A Legacy of Spies can be a little hard to get into by the uninitiated. But like walking on a frozen pond, once you break through, you will find yourself on an incredible breakneck adventure that is sure to challenge the way you perceive the world at large. Le Carré demonstrates the writing skill of a heavyweight champ. No word is wasted and no phrase superfluous leaving only a tale as forceful and driving as a bullet.
One of the things I always enjoy about Le Carré is how mundane his spies can be. They could just as well be the same schmos working retail. Or they could be the schlemiels in outside sales peddling vacuum cleaners as to being clandestine agents mastering the dark art of espionage. You can picture their wrinkled shirts, stooped postures, and heavy guts—these are not James Bond operatives. And this makes their moral collapse, the sacrifice of their honor for useless results even more tragic. Because these aren’t superheroes—just ordinary Joe Sixpacks trying to do the right thing and failing horribly at it.
Told mainly from recollections and pilfered top-secret documents; and relying heavily on the incidents from the previous novels, A Legacy of Spies can be a little hard to get into by the uninitiated. But like walking on a frozen pond, once you break through, you will find yourself on an incredible breakneck adventure that is sure to challenge the way you perceive the world at large. Le Carré demonstrates the writing skill of a heavyweight champ. No word is wasted and no phrase superfluous leaving only a tale as forceful and driving as a bullet.
One of the things I always enjoy about Le Carré is how mundane his spies can be. They could just as well be the same schmos working retail. Or they could be the schlemiels in outside sales peddling vacuum cleaners as to being clandestine agents mastering the dark art of espionage. You can picture their wrinkled shirts, stooped postures, and heavy guts—these are not James Bond operatives. And this makes their moral collapse, the sacrifice of their honor for useless results even more tragic. Because these aren’t superheroes—just ordinary Joe Sixpacks trying to do the right thing and failing horribly at it.
October 31, 2018
Another brilliant one from John le Carré! This one doesn't have much of Smiley in it though, which is a let down. However, his sidekick Peter Guillam, a fan favorite I believe. Well in the very least, I'm a fan, so I quite enjoyed this retrospective look back at a case or mission or whatever you call it, wherein Guillam played a major role. Flash forward and now he's being taken to task for these actions by the Circus' own lawyers, who are looking for a fall-guy to take the wrap for a botched job in which a relative innocent was killed. Once again the author weaves an intricate web and nimbly unwinds it with astonishing expertise. For spy fiction there isn't much action, yet nonetheless, it's always a great pleasure to read one of le Carré's books!
August 29, 2018
For 25 years, I called him "John Le Car". In Dhaka in the 90s, there was no one to tell me the correct pronunciation, no one to explain that the accent aigu over the "e" turned the name into "John Le Cah-ray" or, translated into English, John the Square.
It didn't matter though because, Le Car or Le Cahray, he was one of the writers, alongside Orwell, Maugham and Simenon, that I spent a great deal of time obsessing over during the nineties. Fresh out of college and gleefully skipping university classes, I collected his books from the shabby pavements of Nilkhet and Paltan, reading and rereading them, especially The Spy Who Came In From The Cold which, with its ashen-grey authenticity and its absolutely chilling amorality, made such a lasting impression upon me that even two decades later, I was sending it as a gift to a political scientist friend who had just told me that she was teaching a college course on the Cold War to a bunch of American undergraduates!
Some books become THE classic example of their genre. They represent such a pinnacle of achievement that all other books in the genre must necessarily refer to them, are permanently indebted to them and, just as permanently, fail to measure up to them. When it comes to the Cold War spy thriller, The Spy Who Came In represents that peak, making all other works to some extent superfluous; in the long run, its survival alone will suffice for literature and for posterity.
And so it was with great surprise and pleasure that I found out, on opening THIS book on a flight to Dublin last week, that it is both a prequel and a sequel to that tale of woe that Le Carré published all the way back in 1963. I actually went to the author's book talk that accompanied its publication last year (though I didn't delve too much into the book itself). John Le Carré is almost 87 years old now, and he no longer does public appearances. So the talk he gave at London's Southbank Centre was a true rarity, and the 2,740-seat hall was packed to capacity in anticipation. Le Carré did not disappoint. What astonished me was both his physical fitness and his mental acuity; for nearly two hours, this octogenarian stood on his feet, spinning out stories and memories, regaling the audience with his waspish humour and pointed observation.
Not many characters, not many books find an afterlife more than half a century later. But Le Carré clearly felt that George Smiley and the Circus deserved one final valedictory, a last literary kiss before both he and his ageless characters drift off into eternity. And so A Legacy of Spies. It is essentially the story behind the story of Alec Leamas and Liz Gold, describing the events that led up to their doomed love affair, and its aftereffects rippling out into the present day. The narrator is our old friend Peter Guillam, summoned from bucolic retirement in Brittany, dealing with the brittle suits of today's MI6, trying to protect those secrets and lies that mattered so much in the early sixties but seem so strange and anachronistic and even redundant in these techno-glorious hyper-modern times.
It's odd, travelling through eastern Europe today and talking to young Poles and Ukrainians, to realize that the earnest shadow boxing of the Cold War is not even a faded memory for them. It's only the diminishing sum of the grubby recollections of their aging parents and grandparents. But that is the ancient mud that Le Carré has chosen to roil up in this book, with somewhat - I have to say - mixed success. Guillam must be close to 80 now, and Smiley for his part has to be nearing his hundredth birthday. But Le Carré has managed to turn them both into timeless heroes, pickled in the aspic of skulduggery across the ages, much like James Bond or our very own Masud Rana.
That legendary Le Carré prose is as lavishly delicious as ever. At times it reminded me of a particularly rich ice-cream, at other times of a smoothly purring German auto engine. Basically one of life's hedonistic pleasures, which the old man is still well capable of serving up to his devoted readers. As for the plot, a lot of complicated carpentry has gone to successfully bolt on a backstory to The Spy Who Came In, and some of the seams do show. The best parts of the book are the first two thirds, especially the operational devilry of the TULIP operation that Guillam describes in all its nefarious glory via multifarious sources. The final third though, I felt was somewhat anticlimactic, if not actually ho-hum. But that may be as much due to the reading gap imposed upon me by a long weekend as to any inherent defect in the story.
No matter. Le Carré is Le Carré, one of the enduring masters of postwar English literature, and nothing gives one more pleasure than to see him being fully recognized as such by today's critics and scholars. Such was the kick I received from this latest encounter that I am now diving headlong into the utterly sinful luxury that is turning out to be A Perfect Spy!
September 23, 2017
A fine effort by le Carre in his most recent offering. Here we are looking at a situation where the current spy agency is both questioning and trying to undermine Operation Windfall that involved George Smiley and all his fellow Cold War agents. Much of this book is seen as a series of flashback as set forth in Agency memos and notes. I really enjoyed the book and it made me a bit peeved at the new political correctness that pervades agencies who do not have a historical perspective to understand and appreciate what their predecessors had to go through during that time period. The book really makes it appear that the British Covert agencies are on trial for "collateral damage" deaths that occurred in the Cold War, while at the same time being blind to the actions and counteractions that were undertaken by the East Germans and Russians.
Not sure if this will be le Carre's last book, but if so it wraps up a lot and allows us to take a look at todays spy agencies in not the most glowing light.
Not sure if this will be le Carre's last book, but if so it wraps up a lot and allows us to take a look at todays spy agencies in not the most glowing light.
September 29, 2017
In the early 1960s Len Deighton & John le Carré redefined the novel of espionage. From John Buchan to Ian Fleming, the spy was a glamorous attractive figure performing deeds of derring-do. But The Ipcress File and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold gave us the spy (more accurately, the intelligence officer) as an anti-hero & the secret intelligence service a nest of in-fighting, turf wars, and bureaucratic intrigue, where the principal character faced more danger from his own colleagues than from the other side. Both novels were made into brilliant movies, vehicles for Michael Caine & Richard Burton. In the 1970s John le Carré surpassed his earlier efforts with the stunning Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, featuring the unprepossessing Geogre Smiley (played superbly by Alec Guinness in the television series) unmasking a traitor within the service, based loosely on the notorious Kim Philby. What made Tinker, Tailor so irresistible (I think I read it four times) wasn’t the plot - which was good - but the intense atmosphere & settings: the Circus, the Scalp Hunters in Brixton, Toby’s Lamp Lighters, Sarratt the country-house training establishment, & the slang - joes, moles, pavement artists. It was followed by two sequels, The Honourable Schoolboy & Smiley’s People, which continued the contest between Smiley & the British intelligence service, the Circus, against Moscow Centre’s cunning spymaster Karla (apparently based on the East German Markus Wolfe), a trilogy collectively known as The Quest for Karla. Now what John le Carré, himself in his mid-80s, has done in Legacy of Spies is connecting the story of Alec Leamas in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold with Tinker, Tailor and the Quest for Karla. This new offering is difficult to rate. I’m personally encouraged @ my age to see that John le Carré still has his wits about him & tells a good story. But the plot doesn’t quite work. We are supposed to believe that both Alec & Elizabeth left offspring who are now suing the British government (for failure to supply their spies with a “work friendly safe environment” in the 1950s & 60s?) tho’ given some of the legal vampire solicitors bringing suit from events in Northern Ireland and Iraq, one can almost believe it. The biggest problem is that all of these characters would be much too old - their heyday was the Second World War when they were doing things like operating a fleet of trawlers in the Helford estuary (how details like that stick in my mind!). The central character, Peter Guillam, would be in his mid-80s, Jim well into his 90s, & George over 100. Even Leamas’ son, who’s supposed to be a dangerous brute (in a Homburg hat!) would be in his 70s. Definitely this book would not work as a stand-alone. But if like me, you are soaked in the Circus mythology & the characters & their advocations (Bill Haydon’s paintings, George’s scholarship devoted to 17th-c. German Baroque tragedy) you will find this story, your last reunion with your old friends, utterly impossible to put down, however implausible some of the incidents.
May 19, 2021
This is the first Le Carre book that I have been able to finish. My attempts so far have been rather unsuccessful. Years ago I started reading one of his books, but gave it up after only ten pages because it wasn't for me at all. At the beginning of last year, I tried to read the famous The Tailor of Panama and I absolutely hated this book, I couldn't bring myself to read it to the end.
The more surprised me that this book interested me from the very beginning. I don't know exactly what I found in it that was missing in previous books, but definitely something worked. This is also the first Le Carre book that I have tried to listen to as an audiobook instead of reading, and maybe that's the whole difference. This story seemed more interesting to me from the very start, and the characteristic language of this author did not bother me as in the previous books. Maybe that's because instead of tearing through his writing style myself, I listened to someone else reading it, and it didn't seem so dry and colorless to me.
Later, I lost some of that initial interest, and I don't quite know why either. I guess the whole story stopped heading in the direction that interested me. I think it happened somewhere about two-thirds of the story. The ending was a bit weak in my opinion. Especially the last two chapters. But until at least half of the story, I was really fascinated. Which for this author is new to me.
An exception to Le Carre, I liked the main character of the story. Although he is quite typical of this author, there was something about him that made me like him to some extent. I liked his complicated relationship to what he was doing in his life as well as the way he deals with the present situation. Which definitely helped to enjoy the story.
Like I said, I'm a bit disappointed with the ending. I think the book lost its charm and influence on me with the chapters that followed. I do not think that I will soon reach for another book by this author. And if I do, I will probably try the audiobook again, apparently in this form this author is much more digestible for me.
The more surprised me that this book interested me from the very beginning. I don't know exactly what I found in it that was missing in previous books, but definitely something worked. This is also the first Le Carre book that I have tried to listen to as an audiobook instead of reading, and maybe that's the whole difference. This story seemed more interesting to me from the very start, and the characteristic language of this author did not bother me as in the previous books. Maybe that's because instead of tearing through his writing style myself, I listened to someone else reading it, and it didn't seem so dry and colorless to me.
Later, I lost some of that initial interest, and I don't quite know why either. I guess the whole story stopped heading in the direction that interested me. I think it happened somewhere about two-thirds of the story. The ending was a bit weak in my opinion. Especially the last two chapters. But until at least half of the story, I was really fascinated. Which for this author is new to me.
An exception to Le Carre, I liked the main character of the story. Although he is quite typical of this author, there was something about him that made me like him to some extent. I liked his complicated relationship to what he was doing in his life as well as the way he deals with the present situation. Which definitely helped to enjoy the story.
Like I said, I'm a bit disappointed with the ending. I think the book lost its charm and influence on me with the chapters that followed. I do not think that I will soon reach for another book by this author. And if I do, I will probably try the audiobook again, apparently in this form this author is much more digestible for me.
October 18, 2017
Read this for Bookclub. Just never got going for me. I know le Carre is big on character and intellect, but I found the plot a little of a bore. I also found the ending/resolution a little too simplisitic, as if everything needed to fall into place to satisfy the reader.
February 18, 2018
You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.
One of the godfathers of spy thrillers returns to the battlefield with A Legacy of Spies. It’s hard to ignore the legacy of John Le Carré himself when brought to reflect upon the whole universe of espionage that he was able to bring to life, from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy to The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. His latest novel serves as a fantastic throwback to his greatest work and brings back one of his signature characters, George Smiley, in a story overflowing with tough moral decisions. As much as I would’ve loved to recommend this as a stand-alone novel which features one of the most charismatic, authentic and fascinating characters, Peter Guillam, also known as George Smiley top disciple, A Legacy of Spies will mostly please fans who have read his previous novels, notably the two mentioned above. Nonetheless, John Le Carré’s latest book continues to highlight his talent as a story-teller and immerses you in the world of spies like no other story.
Unlike certain novels that are easily read without any prior knowledge of previous books of the author, A Legacy of Spies would surely be much more appreciated if you’re memory is still fresh regarding events taking place in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. A Legacy of Spies is not being marketed as a sequel, but its references to past events makes it a bit hard to comprehend its core essence if you haven’t checked out those two other books. In fact, the story unfolds with Peter Guillam, our protagonist, being scrutinized about Operation Windfall and his Cold War past in order to help him—or maybe just the British Secret Service—bypass some legal issues that have risen from the dark. The novel greatly relies on interweaving the past and the present in order to unwrap the lies and deceits that have been much more essential than one who has never lived through Cold War would understand. While you’d love to pursue this story thinking that this Operation and all its mysteries are new and never-heard of, you’ll quickly find yourself in front of elements that can only be savored if you had prior knowledge of John Le Carré books (at least those two classics).
The story also greatly relies on transcripts and past communications written with code names and technical spy language. While at first it was fun to follow the dialect and watch the evolution behind all these communications, you should be wary of how things can sometimes be quite confusing and easily lose you if you don’t remember a spies countless different names. It’s not a major issue since there are moments where you’re reminded, in parentheses, who’s who. But when the plot suddenly complicates itself with the addition of a couple sub-plots, you’ll wish that you had read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, and that you had taken note on all these names. However, here’s the thing. With spy novels, misdirection, deception and coded language are all part of the game. John Le Carré does an exemplary and astounding job at creating a seamless story that brings this spy world to life. It’s the whole thinking-twice-before-saying-something and the silly-names-for-serious-things-or-people that make this so much more fun after all.
If there’s one thing that stands out the most about this novel, it’s its cast. The character’s in this story are brilliantly developed and have their own identity throughout the story. While there’s the return of certain classic characters created by John Le Carré, the newer additions were also just as intriguing. I loved how they all embraced their roles and represented their generation with pure perfection. It’s also quite satisfying to have a a retired spy operative with such a remarkable personality take the lead in this latest novel. In fact, Peter Guillam’s wit and attitude made this story so much more enjoyable. Unfortunately, the downside to A Legacy of Spies is how all the throwback elements referring to both of John Le Carré’s bestsellers carry a lot of weight in the reader’s overall impression of this novel. Instead of being crafty hints for fans to discover and enjoy, they end up less exciting as you’d want them to be for readers who are new to the author’s books. Nonetheless, John Le Carré delivers an excellent spy thriller that navigates through the world of spies by incorporating both the past and the present.
Thank you to Penguin Random House for sending me a copy for review!
Yours truly,
Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: https://bookidote.com/
One of the godfathers of spy thrillers returns to the battlefield with A Legacy of Spies. It’s hard to ignore the legacy of John Le Carré himself when brought to reflect upon the whole universe of espionage that he was able to bring to life, from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy to The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. His latest novel serves as a fantastic throwback to his greatest work and brings back one of his signature characters, George Smiley, in a story overflowing with tough moral decisions. As much as I would’ve loved to recommend this as a stand-alone novel which features one of the most charismatic, authentic and fascinating characters, Peter Guillam, also known as George Smiley top disciple, A Legacy of Spies will mostly please fans who have read his previous novels, notably the two mentioned above. Nonetheless, John Le Carré’s latest book continues to highlight his talent as a story-teller and immerses you in the world of spies like no other story.
Unlike certain novels that are easily read without any prior knowledge of previous books of the author, A Legacy of Spies would surely be much more appreciated if you’re memory is still fresh regarding events taking place in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. A Legacy of Spies is not being marketed as a sequel, but its references to past events makes it a bit hard to comprehend its core essence if you haven’t checked out those two other books. In fact, the story unfolds with Peter Guillam, our protagonist, being scrutinized about Operation Windfall and his Cold War past in order to help him—or maybe just the British Secret Service—bypass some legal issues that have risen from the dark. The novel greatly relies on interweaving the past and the present in order to unwrap the lies and deceits that have been much more essential than one who has never lived through Cold War would understand. While you’d love to pursue this story thinking that this Operation and all its mysteries are new and never-heard of, you’ll quickly find yourself in front of elements that can only be savored if you had prior knowledge of John Le Carré books (at least those two classics).
The story also greatly relies on transcripts and past communications written with code names and technical spy language. While at first it was fun to follow the dialect and watch the evolution behind all these communications, you should be wary of how things can sometimes be quite confusing and easily lose you if you don’t remember a spies countless different names. It’s not a major issue since there are moments where you’re reminded, in parentheses, who’s who. But when the plot suddenly complicates itself with the addition of a couple sub-plots, you’ll wish that you had read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, and that you had taken note on all these names. However, here’s the thing. With spy novels, misdirection, deception and coded language are all part of the game. John Le Carré does an exemplary and astounding job at creating a seamless story that brings this spy world to life. It’s the whole thinking-twice-before-saying-something and the silly-names-for-serious-things-or-people that make this so much more fun after all.
If there’s one thing that stands out the most about this novel, it’s its cast. The character’s in this story are brilliantly developed and have their own identity throughout the story. While there’s the return of certain classic characters created by John Le Carré, the newer additions were also just as intriguing. I loved how they all embraced their roles and represented their generation with pure perfection. It’s also quite satisfying to have a a retired spy operative with such a remarkable personality take the lead in this latest novel. In fact, Peter Guillam’s wit and attitude made this story so much more enjoyable. Unfortunately, the downside to A Legacy of Spies is how all the throwback elements referring to both of John Le Carré’s bestsellers carry a lot of weight in the reader’s overall impression of this novel. Instead of being crafty hints for fans to discover and enjoy, they end up less exciting as you’d want them to be for readers who are new to the author’s books. Nonetheless, John Le Carré delivers an excellent spy thriller that navigates through the world of spies by incorporating both the past and the present.
Thank you to Penguin Random House for sending me a copy for review!
Yours truly,
Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: https://bookidote.com/
September 28, 2017
The consummate British spy George Smiley originally appeared in 1961 in John le Carré's Call for the Dead, his first novel. The last time he was a central character was 1979 in Smiley's People, nearly forty years ago. (His most recent appearance, but only as a supporting character, was in The Secret Pilgrim, published in 1990.) Now, decades later, Smiley surfaces again in the background in le Carré's twenty-fourth novel, A Legacy of Spies (2017). Given the author's six-decade career as a novelist, the decade he had spent as an intelligence officer for both MI6 and MI5, and the worldwide popularity of his work, Smiley's reappearance in 2017 is a major event in the publishing world. And, luckily, A Legacy of Spies is worth all the fuss.
The Cold War reexamined
Decades earlier, late in the 1950s and early in the 60s, Peter Guillam had served as a young MI6 officer under the legendary George Smiley, then serving one step below Control as "Head of Covert." Smiley and Control had involved him in a spectacularly devious operation named Windfall that targeted East Germany's Stasi. Now, many years later, Guillam is an old man, retired to the family farm in Brittany. An urgent summons calls him to London, where he learns that he and Smiley have been sued by the children of two people who fell victim to that old operation—and, worse, Members of Parliament are threatening an investigation that has the potential to cause great damage not just to them personally but to the Secret Intelligence Service as a whole. Peter is sequestered in a run-down safe house and interrogated by an unpleasant pair of officers who are convinced that he and Smiley were responsible for the two deaths and for causing Windfall to fail in a disastrous fashion.
Complex and believable characters, palpable suspense
The action rapidly shifts back and forth from Peter's recollections of Windfall and the hostile questioning he faces years later, illuminated by official documents that come to light in the files of MI6 as well as the Stasi. At the age of 85, le Carré has lost none of his considerable writing skill. His characters leap off the page, fully fleshed. Suspense builds steadily as the case against Peter grows ever stronger. And, in dialogue as well as memory, the ambiguous morality of the espionage game comes across just as clearly as it did in the novels le Carré wrote during the Cold War. A Legacy of Spies is a worthy successor to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, the breakthrough bestseller that established the author as the premier spy novelist of the last half-century.
The Cold War reexamined
Decades earlier, late in the 1950s and early in the 60s, Peter Guillam had served as a young MI6 officer under the legendary George Smiley, then serving one step below Control as "Head of Covert." Smiley and Control had involved him in a spectacularly devious operation named Windfall that targeted East Germany's Stasi. Now, many years later, Guillam is an old man, retired to the family farm in Brittany. An urgent summons calls him to London, where he learns that he and Smiley have been sued by the children of two people who fell victim to that old operation—and, worse, Members of Parliament are threatening an investigation that has the potential to cause great damage not just to them personally but to the Secret Intelligence Service as a whole. Peter is sequestered in a run-down safe house and interrogated by an unpleasant pair of officers who are convinced that he and Smiley were responsible for the two deaths and for causing Windfall to fail in a disastrous fashion.
Complex and believable characters, palpable suspense
The action rapidly shifts back and forth from Peter's recollections of Windfall and the hostile questioning he faces years later, illuminated by official documents that come to light in the files of MI6 as well as the Stasi. At the age of 85, le Carré has lost none of his considerable writing skill. His characters leap off the page, fully fleshed. Suspense builds steadily as the case against Peter grows ever stronger. And, in dialogue as well as memory, the ambiguous morality of the espionage game comes across just as clearly as it did in the novels le Carré wrote during the Cold War. A Legacy of Spies is a worthy successor to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, the breakthrough bestseller that established the author as the premier spy novelist of the last half-century.
May 7, 2017
The old master may have lost a half step, but a sequel to THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD still has no right to be this good.
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