George Smiley

10 primary works

Call for the Dead

by John le Carre

Published 1 January 1961

George Smiley had liked the man and now the man was dead. Suicide. But why

An anonymous letter had alleged that Foreign Office man Samuel Fennan had been a member of the Communist Party as a student before the war. Nothing very unusual for his generation. Smiley had made it clear that the investigation - little more than a routine security check - was over and that the file on Fennan could be closed.

Next day, Fennan was dead with a note by his body saying his career was finished and he couldn't go on. Why Smiley was puzzled ...

A Murder of Quality

by John le Carre

Published 1 September 1964

George Smiley was simply doing a favour for an old friend, Miss Ailsa Brimley, who edited a small religious newspaper. Miss Brimley had received a letter from a worried woman reader: 'I'm not mad. And I know my husband is trying to kill me.' The writer of the letter was one Stella Rode, wife to an assistant master at Carne School, Dorset, and by the time it arrived, she was dead. Carne was an ancient, self-regarding Church foundation, proud of its proper standards of social distinctions. George Smiley went there to listen, take sherry, ask questions and think. And thus uncover, layer upon layer, the complexities, skeletons and hatreds that comprised this little English institution.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

by John le Carre

Published December 1963

Written by the author of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", "The Honourable Schoolboy" and "The Little Drummer Girl", this is a terrible story of an English agent. It shows the realities behind the news paragraphs which record the shifts and tensions of the Cold War.

The Looking Glass War

by John le Carre

Published 1 December 1965

How long was it since the department had mounted an operation Too long.

There had been a time when the distinctions were clear: the Circus handled all things political while the Department dealt with matters military. But over the years the power had slowly passed to the Circus, and the Circus had elbowed the Department out.

Now suddenly the Department had a job on its hands. Uncertain evidence suggested Soviet missiles being put in place close to the German border, while vital film had gone missing and a courier was dead.

Lacking active agents and the time to recruit afresh, the Department had to find an old hand who would prove its mettle. Fred Leiser, German-speaking Pole turned Englishman, once a qualified radio-operator, now something in the motor trade, must be called back to the colours and sent East ...

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

by John le Carre

Published December 1975

Smiley and his people are facing a remarkable challenge: a mole - a soviet double agent - who has burrowed his way in and up to the highest level of British Intelligence. His treachery has already blown some of their vital operations and their best networks. The mole is one of their own kind. But which one?

''His people are full-bodied, believable individuals, the minor characters as vivid as the main cast ... a stunning story'

The Wall Street Journal

The Honourable Schoolboy

by John le Carre

Published 1 December 1920

In this sequel to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, British Secret Service Agent George Smiley has assumed the unenviable job of restoring the health and reputation of his demoralized organization. So he brings one of his deadliest hand-picked operatives into duty, choosing the Far East as his battleground.

The Honorable Schoolboy

by John le Carre

Published 1 July 2014

Smiley's People

by John le Carre

Published 31 December 1925

From the author of THE HONOURABLE SCHOOLBOY, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY and THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, a Cold War thriller in which George Smiley, chief of the British Secret Service, prepares to engage in his final battle with his Soviet counterpart.

Secret Pilgrim

by John le Carre

Published 31 December 1925

The Berlin Wall is toppled, the Iron Curtain swept aside. The Secret Pilgrim is Ned, a decent, loyal soldier of the Cold War, who has been in British Intelligence - the Circus - all his adult life. Now, approaching the end of his career, he is forced by the explosions of change to revisit his secret years.

Ned illuminates the brave past of the legendary George Smiley, his hero and mentor who, in one unforgettable evening, gives back to him the dangerous edge of memory that empowers him finally to frame the questions that have haunted him for thirty years ...

Smiley S People

by John le Carre

Published 1 May 2014