New life into a favourite series

There's a reason you won't find many spy thrillers in my reading list and it's this simple, I started reading John le Carré in my teens and where as in other genres or cross genres, I could usually at least give you a top ten, in plain unadulterated spy thrillers, no one else has ever measured up. This is up there with this author's best. Not only a new tale but one that weaves around so much of what has been left out of the earlier Smiley adventures. Despite being completely gripped by the story, I wanted to cheer when I heard more information on this character or that characters adventures and perspective. This book breaths new life into one of my favourite series.

There's an amazing performance by the narrator too and with all the different accents and locations that's no small feet.

I do recommend listening to this series in order but you have a choice here between the brilliantly narrated separate books or the alternative of purchasing the collection of really great radio adaptations by the BBC. (The Complete George Smiley Radio Dramas: BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Dramatization which, at the time of writing this review, is also available to purchase on Audible UK.) I honestly don't think there's a wrong answer here, with the exception of a Murder Of Quality, which I stuck to the radio play for,as it's not the strongest of the series, I went for both.

33 people found this helpful

Brilliant

Fans of Le Carré will love this. The story is gripping and the narration by Tom Hollander is perfect. It is hard to believe that Le Carré is 85.

14 people found this helpful

An immensely satisfying conclusion

An immensely satisfying conclusion to the George Smiley series that is very well narrated by Tom Hollander.

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. 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.

10 people found this helpful

Would still have preferred Michael Jayston

And so we say goodbye to George Smiley, the greatest of fictional spymasters. His final bow, like his whole personality, is undramatic: in the end, like all good soldiers, he simply fades away.

A Legacy of Spies is clearly intended to round off neatly the whole Smiley canon. The plot is less labyrinthine than in many of le Carré’s novels but the author takes the opportunity to contrast the dusty anonymity of the antiquated old Cambridge Circus premises with the brash ‘in your face’ brutality of ‘Spyland beside the Thames’ as metaphors for the old world of George Smiley with its arcane jargon and the new, shiny, digital spy world of ‘Bunny’ and the appalling Laura. He also takes the opportunity, through Smiley, to question whether so much that was done in the secret world during the cold war actually achieved anything at all. There is, of course, no mention of Brexit but Smiley also states that everything he did was not exclusively for England but in the hope of “leading Europe out of her darkness and into a new age of reason.”

Le Carré’s ear is as accurate as ever but much of the narrative is in the form of reports and memos (which Guillam is obliged by his interrogators to re-read) which, for me, did not quite work – at least in audiobook format. Brilliant though Tom Hollander’s narration is I would still have preferred Michael Jayston, who has read so many le Carré titles, if only for continuity. I know that Jayston is now in his eighties but this would have been entirely appropriate as in A Legacy of Spies Peter Guillam - whom Jayston played in the iconic BBC production of Tinker, Tailor - is now elderly and long-retired.

8 people found this helpful

Gripping

A thought provoking somewhat melancholic quest for understanding. Gripping in the intensity of lies and truths. Tom Hollander's narration is magnificent.

7 people found this helpful

Very Clever very LeCarre

Would you listen to A Legacy of Spies again? Why?

Yes I would listen again, the clever way it answers questions you never thought to ask. Setting earlier stories in a wider context.

What was one of the most memorable moments of A Legacy of Spies?

The realisation that we had only reading a very small contained parts of Smiley's war.

What about Tom Hollander’s performance did you like?

Great pace. Really took you back to a time when we all did not have access to immediate information from the internet or mobile devices and relied on what you could see and feel.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Just made me reflect how little things have changed, and the debt we owe to those who came before us whether we agree with them or not.

5 people found this helpful

Welcome return

Brilliant tense and engaging revisit of old loved characters from the Smiley series. More importantly a chance to review the actions, values and motives of the past. Wonderfully written, as always, and tTom Hollander is outstanding narrator. Spent all day listening and will do so again soon.

6 people found this helpful

A Legacy - for us to learn from

This book strikes home for me a good deal as a huge fan of John le Carré’s work. His Cold War novels have always had a very strong impression on me, especially as to their morality. Always about the grey area of spying. This novel, which the lawyer’s very black and white sense of right and wrong, have got it entirely wrong too.

And it shows. Though the aren’t cardboard villains. You never get a cardboard villain in le Carré. They just don’t know. They’ve probably never stepped out of their cosy worlds, and are commenting on deeds done in a time the world barely remembers. They look at the scars it has given and they wonder how they got there in the first place.

And trussing up the past to pin the blame on someone, is more relevant than it has ever been. We are living in a more conscious, scrutinised age. And bringing back old friends like Jim Prideaux, and mentioning names like Percy Allileine, Bill Haydon, Toby Esterhase, it’s like walking back into the halls of the Circus. And Alec Leamas, the hero of “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold”, having him back was just altering.

Le Carré has done a bang-up job with this novel. It’s probably one of his best works. And a lovely way to tie off the Smiley saga. And seeing him for a change not as the gilded master of spies we know and love, but as a flawed human being too. Very much the man at the end of “Smiley’s People” and the words near the end of the book: “Is that all the information you require?” “No.” “I envy you.” That is so powerful. Rarely do thrillers delve that deep.

I recommend anyone to read or listen to this book, along with the rest of the George Smiley books.

2 people found this helpful

Absolutely wonderful

Perhaps it's because I too am old like Peter Guillam? This book draws all of Smileys world together. The prose is exquisite and Tom Hollander is a triumph.

5 people found this helpful

Just dull

Monotonous reading. Try a few different voices
Story just plain boring. Leave Circus alone John

1 person found this helpful