le Carré remains an enigma even to himself".
In
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974) George Smiley is recalled from retirement to investigate whether there is a double agent, or “mole”, operating at the highest level of the intelligence service, which John le Carré calls the Circus. Melancholy and introspective - le Carré writes of the aged spymaster’s "spiritual exhaustion" - Smiley is drawn back reluctantly into a crepuscular world of secrets and subterfuge, where even long-time friends and associates cannot be trusted. Smiley, le Carré writes, "had that art, from miles and miles of secret life, of listening at the front of his mind; of letting the primary incidents unroll directly before him while another, quite separate faculty wrestled with their historical connection".