It was a face which at first sight meant nothing to Smiley, seeming to have neither the imprint of temperament nor the components of character. it was a shallow, ordinary face, inclining to plumpness, and lacking quality. It matched his short, ordinary body and his black, ordinary hair; it was suitably compressed into an expression of sorrow. As Smiley watched him turn into the centre aisle and take his place among the principal mourners, it occurred to him that Rode's entire walk and bearing successfully conveyed something entirely alien to Carne. If it is vulgar to wear a pen in the breast pocket of your jacket, to favor Fair Isle pullovers and brown ties, to bob a little and turn your feet out as you walk, then Rode beyond a shadow of a doubt was vulgar, for though he did not now commit these sins, his manner implied them all.
- John le Carre, A Murder of Quality, p.74-75
1 comment:
Glad to see Smiley features again. Just like most of JLC’s creations Smiley was a masterpiece but John le Carré doesn’t have a record of being enamoured by his fellow authors let alone journalists. Le Carré, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton did meet one another from time to time but apparently their meetings ended in near nuclear arguments about who was best equipped to write realistic espionage novels. It's a shame all three focused on fiction but of course not one of them had first-hand experience of being a secret agent notwithstanding Fleming’s experiences in the Admiralty and le Carré’s in Five and Six until Kim Philby outed all le Carré’s agents operating in Europe. Of course, Philby and Oleg Gordievsky both knew Col Alan Pemberton (aka Mac, Bill Fairclough’s MI6 handler in The Burlington Files).
Fairclough aka Edward Burlington was the protagonist in The Burlington Files series and did have real life experience of being a secret agent albeit not focused so much on the USSR in the Cold War. Critics have likened Fairclough to a "posh or sophisticated Harry Palmer" which probably didn’t appeal to le Carré. We do know that Fairclough once contacted le Carré in 2014 to do a collaboration. Le Carré responded along the lines of "Why should I? I've got by so far without collaboration so why bother now?" A realistic response from a famous expert in fiction!
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