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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' is a 1974 spy novel by the author and former spy John le Carré. It follows the endeavours of the taciturn, ageing spymaster George Smiley to uncover a Soviet mole in the British Secret Intelligence Service. The novel has received critical acclaim for its complex social commentary—and, at the time, relevance, following the defection of Kim Philby. It was followed by '' The Honourable Schoolboy'' in 1977 and '' Smiley's People'' in 1979. The three novels together make up the " Karla Trilogy", named after Smiley's long-time nemesis Karla, the head of Soviet foreign intelligence and the trilogy's overarching antagonist. The novel has been adapted into both a television series and a film, and remains a staple of the spy fiction genre. In 2022, the novel was included on the " Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II. Plot Background As the tension of the Cold War is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. A "sophisticated, morally ambiguous writer", he is considered one of the greatest novelists of the postwar era. During the 1950s and 1960s, he worked for both the Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Near the end of his life, le Carré became an Irish citizen. Le Carré's third novel, ''The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'' (1963), became an international best-seller, was adapted as an award-winning film, and remains one of his best-known works. This success allowed him to leave MI6 to become a full-time author. His other novels that have been adapted for film or television include '' The Looking Glass War'' (1965), '' Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' (1974), '' Smiley's People'' (1979), '' The Little Drummer Girl'' (1983), '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Big Jubilee Read
The Big Jubilee Read is a 2022 campaign to promote reading for pleasure and to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II. A list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, 10 from each decade of Elizabeth II's reign, was selected by a panel of experts and announced by the BBC and The Reading Agency on 18 April 2022. ''Includes list of titles with images of covers'' Selection process An initial long-list was compiled from readers' suggestions, and a panel of librarians, booksellers and "literature specialists" made the choice of 70 titles, aiming "to engage all readers in the discovery and celebration of great books". The project received funding from the Arts Council and is supported by Libraries Connected and the Booksellers Association. The organisers hope that the project will "celebrate the joy of reading and the power that it has to connect people across the country and among nations". Nineteen of the books are winners of the Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Guillam
Pierre Guillame, better known by the anglicised form Peter Guillam, is a fictional character in John le Carré's series of espionage novels. He first appears in ''Call for the Dead''. He is the trusted right-hand-man of George Smiley, the protagonist of many of le Carre's novels, and is often the person Smiley turns to for assistance when he fears he cannot trust his peers or subordinates. Character Guillam is half-French and half-English, and comes from a family that has worked for The Circus (le Carre's name for MI6) for generations. Although ''Call for the Dead'' indicates that he served in the Second World War, the later books in the series indicate that he was born around 1933. In ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', which takes place in 1973, Guillam contemplates having just turned forty years of age. Although he has done observational "field work" in the past and recruited spies that report to him, Guillam himself is uncomfortable with getting personally involved in spying operatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Haydon
Bill Haydon is a fictional character created by John le Carré who features in le Carré's 1974 novel '' Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy''. He is a senior officer in the British Secret Intelligence Service who serves as a Soviet mole. The novel follows aging spymaster George Smiley's endeavours to uncover the mole. The character is partly modelled after the real-life double agent Kim Philby, part of the notorious Cambridge Five spy ring in Britain, who defected to the USSR in 1963. Biography Haydon was born around 1917; no specific year is given but he is known to have been an undergraduate at Oxford University in 1937. He comes from an eminent family with connections throughout British high society; his father is a high court judge, and two of his several sisters married into the aristocracy. He is a cousin of Ann Smiley. A polymath of sorts with a brilliant and charming personality, he excels as a student, takes up remote languages with ease, and proves a somewhat gifted painter wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toby Esterhase
Toby Esterhase is a fictional character who appears in several of John le Carré's spy novels that feature George Smiley, including ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', '' The Honourable Schoolboy,'' ''Smiley's People'', and '' The Secret Pilgrim''. Esterhase also makes a cameo appearance in Le Carré's ''A Legacy of Spies''. Esterhase is an intelligence officer in ''The Circus,'' le Carre's fictionalized version of MI6. He is the head of the Lamplighters, the section of The Circus responsible for surveillance and wiretapping. Hungarian by birth, Esterhase is an Anglophile with pretensions of being a British gentleman. He often involves himself in either morally questionable or outright criminal plots, although his superiors look the other way due to his high level of competence and loyalty to the service. Initially something of an antagonist to Smiley, due to his loyalty to Smiley's bureaucratic nemesis Percy Alleline, Esterhase ultimately switches allegiances and becomes one of Smile ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Westerby
The Honourable Clive Gerald Westerby, or Jerry Westerby, is a fictional character created by spy novelist John le Carré. He first appeared in ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' (1974), and is the titular figure in '' The Honourable Schoolboy'' (1977). Son of ennobled newspaper magnate Samuel ("Sambo") Westerby, who died leaving little wealth, Westerby, a former cricketer and international sports journalist, is an "occasional" asset of British intelligence ("the Circus"). He was initially recruited by George Smiley, for whom he holds great respect. In ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', he is approached by Smiley regarding information concerning the betrayal of Jim Prideaux on an assignment in Czechoslovakia. In ''The Honourable Schoolboy'', Westerby is recalled from his semi-retirement in Italy and despatched to Hong Kong, in an effort to flush out a deep-cover Soviet spy in China. Portrayals Westerby was played by Joss Ackland in the 1979 television adaptation of ''Tinker Tailor Soldier ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Connie Sachs
Connie Sachs is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Sachs plays a key supporting role in the Karla Trilogy, '' Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', '' The Honourable Schoolboy'', and '' Smiley's People''. Biography Sachs is an eccentric alcoholic with an incredible memory and intellect who works in the research department of the Circus. "A don's daughter", her brothers were also dons, and she herself "some sort of academic". Her family lived at Millponds, a "beautiful Palladian house" with "lovely grounds, near Newbury", later owned by one of her brothers. According to legend, Control met her while she was at university and was so impressed that he invented a job so as to hire her. Her personal and professional life is devoted to the study of Soviet intelligence and most notably the Soviet spymaster known as Karla. She is close to spymaster George Smiley and forced into early retirement at the same time he is. From her vast memory, she provides him with important clu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tinker, Tailor
"Tinker, Tailor" is a counting game, nursery rhyme and fortune telling song traditionally played in England, that can be used to count cherry stones, buttons, daisy petals and other items. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 802. It is commonly used by children in both Britain and America for "counting out", e.g. for choosing who shall be "It" in a game of tag. Lyrics The most common modern version is: :Tinker, Tailor, :Soldier, Sailor, :Rich Man, Poor Man, : Beggar Man, Thief.I. Opie and P. Opie, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 404–5. The most common American version is: :Rich Man, Poor Man, :Beggar Man, Thief, :Doctor, Lawyer, (or "Merchant") :Indian Chief. Origins A similar rhyme has been noted in William Caxton's '' The Game and Playe of the Chesse'' (c. 1475), in which pawns are named: "Labourer, Smith, Clerk, Merchant, Physician, Taverner, Guard and Ribald." The first record of the openi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Control (fictional Character)
__NOTOC__ Control is a fictional character created by John le Carré who is the head of the British overseas intelligence agency (nicknamed "The Circus" after its location in Cambridge Circus, London). He is a character in the novels '' The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'' and '' The Looking Glass War'', and is referred to in '' Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' and several others, usually by le Carré's recurring protagonist George Smiley, who served as Control's right-hand man. "Control" is a '' nom de guerre'', based on the real codename for the head of MI6. The character's real name is never given, and it is suggested that he successfully kept his true identity secret even from his inner circle of advisors. His wife believes him to be a minor civil servant in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. In the original screenplay for the film adaptation of ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', Smiley muses that Control had once told him that Howard Staunton was the greatest chess master ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jim Prideaux
Jim Prideaux is a fictional character created by John le Carré. He appears in ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' and is a minor character in ''A Legacy of Spies''. He is the head of the "scalphunters", a division of MI6 (called "The Circus" in le Carre's books) dedicated to especially dangerous counterintelligence missions often involving violence or assassinations. The betrayal of Prideaux and his subsequent capture, following a botched mission in Czechoslovakia, is the jumping off point for the events of the book. The character has been featured in both cinematic adaptations of the book, with each presenting a markedly different portrayal of the character. Fictional biography Born to "parents in European banking" with a "small aristo" background (his uncle being Comte Henri de Sainte-Yvonne) Prideaux was raised abroad but attended Oxford, in addition to studying language in France. Although put down for Eton College, he did not attend it, instead studying at a Jesuit day-school in P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland became part of Nazi Germany, while the country lost further territories to First Vienna Award, Hungary and Trans-Olza, Poland (the territories of southern Slovakia with a predominantly Hungarian population to Hungary and Zaolzie with a predominantly Polish population to Poland). Between 1939 and 1945, the state ceased to exist, as Slovak state, Slovakia proclaimed its independence and Carpathian Ruthenia became part of Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946), Hungary, while the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed in the remainder of the Czech Lands. In 1939, after the outbreak of World War II, former Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš formed Czechoslovak government-in-exile, a government-in-exile and sought recognition from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambridge Circus, London
Cambridge Circus is the partly pedestrianised intersection where Shaftesbury Avenue crosses Charing Cross Road on the eastern edge of Soho, central London. Side-streets Earlham, West, Romilly and Moor streets also converge at this point. It is halfway between Tottenham Court Road tube station, Tottenham Court Road station, Oxford Street (at St Giles Circus) and the centre of Leicester Square, which is southwest of Charing Cross Road via Cranborne Street. The Circus is fronted by listed building, listed Georgian and Victorian buildings. Of these, the Palace Theatre, London, Palace Theatre has the widest façade; three bars and three fast food outlets occupy the ground floors of the others. Side-street approaches Earlham Street specialises in fashion; Moor Street in cafés, leading to the Prince Edward Theatre. West Street has St Martin's Theatre and leading restaurant: The Ivy (United Kingdom), The Ivy (popular with celebrities and successful artists) and until 2019 L'Atelier d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
