Wow. After over twenty five years we have a new Smiley book. Something I never thought I'd see happen, has happened. Was it worth going back to the well? I think so. Before we get too far, it's best to set expectations. In truth, A Legacy of Spies is about Peter Guillam, not Smiley. It’s …
Continue reading Non spoiler review: A Legacy of Spies by John le Carré
We finish our discussion with Robert Lance Snyder in advance of the release of his new book, John le Carré's Post-Cold War Fiction. Read part one here. Read part two here. Jeff Quest: I’ve been working on a list of books recommended by le Carré and as a result reading many of the introductions he …
Continue reading John le Carré’s Post-Cold War Fiction – Robert Lance Snyder Interview Part Three
We continue our discussion with Robert Lance Snyder in advance of the release of his new book, John le Carré's Post-Cold War Fiction. Read part one here. Jeff Quest: Le Carré has managed to stay relevant in a way that his other contemporaries still writing, like Frederick Forsyth or Charles McCarry, haven’t. McCarry in particular released a book …
Continue reading John le Carré’s Post-Cold War Fiction – Robert Lance Snyder Interview Part Two
I am pleased to welcome to the blog Dr. Robert Lance Snyder. Dr. Snyder has written the upcoming book John le Carré's Post-Cold War Fiction. I haven't read his book yet, but he has previously written The Art of Indirection in British Espionage Fiction and edited the spy fiction of Paradoxa, both of which I've …
Continue reading John le Carré’s Post-Cold War Fiction – Robert Lance Snyder Interview Part One
If you are a male of a certain age who grew up in America then chances are that you held an issue of Mad Magazine in your hands at some point in your adolescence. You always knew something was big in the popular culture when you saw it in Mad. In the September 1966 issue …
We left off discussing an abridged version of "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" and I'm back after digging up another one. From 1937 to the present Readers Digest condensed books have been providing shortened versions of the popular fiction of the day. The winter 1964 release saw a collection of four novels.Included …
For more on John le Carré click here. I highlighted the first lines from Eric Ambler's novels a few weeks back and in honor of John le Carré's newest release, The Pigeon Tunnel, I thought it would be interesting to look at his first lines and whether any changes or trends could be discovered. Hard …
In honor of John le Carré's new release, The Pigeon Tunnel, throughout the month of September I'm highlighting some trivia about his past novels. I thought about including this one with the other The Spy Who Came in from the Cold editions in part one but this seemed worthy of a couple posts of it's …
Following up on my previous post about "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," in the next few posts I'll be highlighting some of the odd or rare versions of the book I have. First is a compilation of le Carré's third, fourth, and fifth novels - The Spy Who, A Small town in …