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Moscow Centre
''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' is a 1974 spy novel by British author John le Carré. It follows the endeavours of taciturn, aging 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. 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. Background When ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' was published in 1974, revelations exposing the presence of Soviet double agents in Britain were still fresh in public memory. Guy Burgess, Donald Duart Maclean, and Kim Philby, later known as members of the Cambridge Five, had been exposed as KGB spies. The five had risen to very senior positions in ... [...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 and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. " neof 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). He is considered to have been a "sophisticated, morally ambiguous writer". 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 novels which 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), ''The Night Manager'' (1993), ''The Tailor of P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald Duart Maclean
Donald Duart Maclean (; 25 May 1913 – 6 March 1983) was a British diplomat who conveyed government secrets to the Soviet Union. As an undergraduate, Maclean openly proclaimed his left-wing views, and was recruited into the Soviet intelligence service, then known as the NKVD. He entered the Civil Service and in 1938, he was made Third Secretary at the Paris embassy. He then served in London and was sent to Washington, D.C. from 1944 to 1948, achieving promotion to First Secretary. He was posted to Egypt and then was appointed head of the American Department in the Foreign Office. The Soviets helped Maclean to defect to Moscow in 1951. In Moscow, Maclean worked as a specialist on British policy and relations between the Soviet Union and NATO. He died there on 6 March 1983. Childhood and school Born in Marylebone, London, Donald Duart Maclean was the son of Sir Donald Maclean and Gwendolen Margaret Devitt. His father was chosen as chairman of the rump of the 23 independent MPs ... [...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'', with the book's events alternating between his point of view and that of George Smiley, and 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. Prideaux's betrayal, and 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 = , s1 = Czech Republic , flag_s1 = Flag of the Czech Republic.svg , s2 = Slovakia , flag_s2 = Flag of Slovakia.svg , image_flag = Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg , flag = Flag of Czechoslovakia , flag_type = Flag(1920–1992) , flag_border = Flag of Czechoslovakia , image_coat = Middle coat of arms of Czechoslovakia.svg , symbol_type = Middle coat of arms(1918–1938 and 1945–1961) , image_map = Czechoslovakia location map.svg , image_map_caption = Czechoslovakia during the interwar period and the Cold War , national_motto = , anthems = ... [...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 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 Georgian and Victorian buildings. Of these, the Palace Theatre has the widest façade; three bars and three fast food outlets, unusually, 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 (popular with celebrities and successful artists) and until 2019 L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon (London). Buildings The Palace Theatre is on the west side of the junc ... [...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] |
The Looking Glass War
''The Looking Glass War'' is a 1965 spy novel by John le Carré. Written in response to the positive public reaction to his previous novel, '' The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'', the book explores the unglamorous nature of espionage and the danger of nostalgia. The book tells the story of an incompetent British intelligence agency known as ''The Department'' and its multiple botched attempts to verify a Communist defector's story of a Soviet missile buildup in East Germany. Some editions hyphenate "Looking Glass". Plot During the early 1960s, the formerly renowned British military intelligence organisation known colloquially as "The Department" is floundering. Surviving on long past memories of its aerial reconnaissance missions during the Second World War the organisation has been reduced to a skeleton crew consisting of Leclerc, a nostalgic former air commander who now languishes in bureaucracy as Director, John Avery, his 32 year old aide who took the job after failing a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Murder Of Quality
''A Murder of Quality'' is the second novel by John le Carré, published in 1962. It features George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in his only book set outside the espionage community. Plot summary Long retired since the war, Ailsa Brimley is now the editor of a small Christian magazine called ''Christian Voice''. The magazine's membership is small but loyal, and many of its readers have been supporters of the magazine since its inception. Unexpectedly, Brimley receives a letter from a reader, Stella Rode, who claims that her husband, a public school junior master in the town of Carne, is plotting to kill her. Fearing for Stella's life, Brimley hunts down her former wartime colleague, the retired Circus spy George Smiley, and asks him to help. Smiley, who knows the brother of school teacher Terence Fielding, agrees to do what he can, but before he is able to intervene, learns that Rode has been murdered. Brimley, feeling a duty of care to Rode on a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Call For The Dead
''Call for the Dead'' is John le Carré's first novel, published in 1961. It introduces George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in a story about East German spies inside Great Britain. It also introduces a fictional version of British Intelligence, called "the Circus" because of its location in Cambridge Circus, that is apparently based on MI6 and that recurs throughout le Carré's spy novels. ''Call for the Dead'' was adapted for film as ''The Deadly Affair'' (1966). Plot summary Following a wartime excursion undercover in Germany, George Smiley returns to England and marries Lady Ann Sercombe. Although Smiley is a devout husband, Ann is serially unfaithful, and begins an affair with a Cuban racing driver before absconding the country with him. Smiley, infinitely self-controlled and self-deprecating, does nothing, and instead lets Ann continue to utilise their finances whilst he continues to live at their home in Bywater Street in the London bor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Omnibus Edition
An omnibus edition or omnibus is a creative work containing one or more works by the same or, more rarely, different authors. Commonly two or more components have been previously published as books but a collection of shorter works, or shorter works collected with one previous book, may be an omnibus. Omnibus editions help consolidate longer series into fewer books. The prices are usually equal to or less than the price of buying each individual edition separately. Examples *''The Omnibus Jules Verne (4-Books-In-1: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in Eighty Days, The Blockade Runners, From the Earth to the Moon and a Trip Around It)''. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. *''The Sherlock Holmes illustrated omnibus : a facsimile ed. of all Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories'', illustrated by Sidney Paget, as they originally appeared in the Strand magazine. London: John Murray. 1978. *''Agatha Christie 1920s Omnibus'', ''Agatha Christie 1930s Om ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smiley's People
''Smiley's People'' is a spy novel by British writer John le Carré, published in 1979. Featuring British master-spy George Smiley, it is the third and final novel of the " Karla Trilogy", following ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' and ''The Honourable Schoolboy''. George Smiley is called out of retirement to investigate the death of one of his old agents: a former Soviet general, the head of an Estonian émigré organisation based in London. Smiley learns the general had discovered information that will lead to a final confrontation with Smiley's nemesis, the Soviet spymaster Karla. Plot Maria Ostrakova, a Soviet émigrée in Paris, is told by a Soviet agent calling himself "Kursky" that her daughter Alexandra, whom she was forced to leave behind, may be permitted to join her. Maria applies for an exit permit for her daughter; then, hearing nothing more, writes to General Vladimir, a former Soviet general and British agent, for help. Vladimir realises that Maria was used to pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
