Funnily enough I did not start reading this because of the film, I had made it a mission to complete all of le Carre's books, and I actually started with The Honourable Schoolboy.
TTSS is a reader's book, its not a book for someone who only flirts with the words on the pages, you have to pay attention. You snooze, you lose type of reading. It is a fab read. Le Carre's sense of place, time and context are always strong. The sense of location in this book is amazing, the subtle enmity between the us and them contextualisation is what espionage thriller writing is all about.
I fell in love with George Smiley, a quiet unassuming type of hero who somehow personifies all that is good and noble about being british. He is assigned a task, gets on with it, delivers the result and totters off again. Brilliant sharp mind and his ability to deduce the unknown from the known is what eventually reveals the identity of the mole at the Centre.
Great book.
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