Mr C writes:
Among my very welcome pile of Christmas books was John le Carré's The Spy who came in from the cold. I'd never actually read any of his books before, but for anyone who saw twenty years ago the excellent BBC dramatisation the author's name prompts a wide range of Pavlovian associations: sound (Geoffrey Burgon's Nunc Dimittis), images (Oxford spires) and, above all, atmospheres (seedy evasions and moral equivocations). Le Carré wrote the book while serving, unhappily, in one of the more shadowy parts of the Foreign Office, in the immediate aftermath of the building of the Berlin Wall, and in a neat bookending the edition I have has a new introduction which he wrote in late 1989, just as that monstrous edifice and the system it defended had collapsed.
I surrender gladly to the seductive appeal of the series, the prospect of being wrapped up in a sustained and plausible narrative world. From Barchester and the Pallisers via Sherlock Holmes to Anthony Powell and Jack Aubrey, once I'm hooked there is no escape. One down, seven to go....
Enjoy - i loved it!
Posted by: abs | 02 January 2010 at 02:49 PM
I loved it as well, the Smiley books are a series that fit in the great company you've mentioned!
Posted by: Sarah | 03 January 2010 at 12:51 AM
Welcome to the club, Mr C. There is lots of wonder still to come (but avoid the Naive and Sentimental Lover, I´m told). All the Smiley books are very good or excellent, and there are some crackerjacks elsewhere, too - Le C didn´t ride his success too long on one hero (hero?) - so spare time too for Little Drummer Girl and his latest, set in Hamburg, the title of which eludes me.
Posted by: Lindsay | 04 January 2010 at 03:20 PM
The Hamburg one I think is
Small Town in Germany - which is very good.
Posted by: jodi | 05 January 2010 at 01:39 AM