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Le Carré, John

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, [53] 7

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20201009172545 Slightly Foxed Magazine Archives | L is for le Carré

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy | From the Slightly Foxed archives

Greetings from Hoxton Square where once again we’re sharing a free article from Slightly Foxed to complement a weekend of good reading. The magazine’s archive now stretches to almost 17 years’ worth of issues and over 1000 articles, all of which are available in print and on our website. This week we have combed through our back issues to bring you a piece by John le Carré’s biographer Adam Sisman on a spy fiction classic, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
20170301152326 Adam Sisman on John le Carré, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

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Adam Sisman on John le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

I first read John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy soon after it was published in 1974, and have reread it several times since. It is one of those books that never fails to give me pleasure, even now I know it so well. There is so much about it to admire and enjoy: the precision of the dialogue, the deftly drawn characters, the accuracy of the settings, the steadily rising tension – above all, the sheer quality of the writing. Here is a writer in complete command of his subject: able to do whatever he wants, confident it will succeed.

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