A LEGACY OF SPIES by John le Carre

He certainly has not lost his touch, the master story teller at 86 years of age still turning out a good spy yarn. I read somewhere that it  would help to have read the previous novels of 'The Spy Who Came in From the Cold', 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' and 'The Honourable Schoolboy' which all predate the action in this novel. But a quick google gave me a pretty good idea what had been going on, and I did refer back to Prof G while reading this.

Basically the past has come back to bite Smiley's trusty lieutenant Peter Guillam on the bum. Retired and living out his well earned rest on his family property in France, a letter arrives and he is summoned to appear in London. Duly questioned, threatened, on the receiving end of many of the techniques he employed during his time of service in the Circus, the story of what happened years before at the height of the Cold War slowly unravels. And at the end, the question is was it all worth it?

I love these types of books, this author in particular. I surprise myself that I have not  read any of the three previous novels, even though I have read plenty le Carre novels and seen movies/TV series. This is absolute classic stuff, such a good story, the slow and gradual reveal in an atmosphere of how much does poor Peter allow himself to give away, and at the same time save himself. Brilliant.