Collins tells Smiley how he became aware of a bank account receiving questionable sums in the name of a charter company, Indocharter. Smiley calls in the submitting agent, Sam Collins, and asks him to go over the case with him in detail. George Smiley has found a case in the Circus's files that has Karla's fingerprints all over it. The Honourable Schoolboy is a test of personal integrity as much as a novel about spies, teaching the reader something about human nature as it entertains.

This case follows a string of bank accounts from Vientiane to Hong Kong, taking Smiley's agents all over Southeast Asia in search of the truth. Smiley searches until he finds a case that has the fingerprints of the Russians all over it. George Smiley finds himself in the undesirable position of running this demoralized organization and decides his first priority should be to set right some of the damage Bill Haydon did to his beloved service. In this novel, the Circus, or British Secret Service, is still reeling with knowledge that one of its best and most respected agents was a Russian spy. One of his most enduring heroes, Alec Leamas, perhaps best summarized le Carré’s feelings about espionage in “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.” “What do you think spies are: priests, saints and martyrs? They’re a squalid procession of vain fools, traitors, too, yes pansies, sadists and drunkards, people who play cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten lives.The Honourable Schoolboy is a spy novel by the acclaimed author John Le Carre. His books feature labyrinthine plots and high stakes the greatest betrayals and acts of deception are often internal.

His spies are morally ambiguous, genteel, solitary - a marked departure from the suave and high-octane figures like James Bond, who glamorized the practice of espionage. Le Carré worked as a British agent until his literary success allowed him to quit his undercover work to write full-time. He wrote 25 novels over nearly six decades, zeroing in on the machinations of the espionage community and distilling complex interior conflicts into eminently readable tales.įor millions of readers across the world, his allure lies in the authenticity and believability of his novels. John le Carré, who died over the weekend at age 89, left behind a remarkable literary legacy.

John le carre the honourable schoolboy