Passages #2: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974)
There are several books in my bag at the moment, but the one I’m dipping into the most is Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, a novel by John le Carré. Reading it reminds me that I should read more, as I immensely enjoy good fiction, but over the last few months I haven’t read enough. Here is a snippet:
It was almost four o’clock on the afternoon of the same day. Safe houses I have known, thought Guillam, looking around the gloomy flat. He could write of them the way a commercial traveller could write about hotels: from your five-star hall of mirrors in Belgravia with Wedgwood pilasters and gilded oak leaves, to this two-room scalp-hunters’ shakedown in Lexham Gardens, smelling of dustand drains, with a three-foot fire extinguisher in the pitch-dark hall. Over the fireplace, cavaliers drinking out of pewter. On the nest of tables, sea-shells for ashtrays; and in the grey kitchen, anonymous instructions to “Be Sure and Turn Off the Gas Both Cocks.” He was crossing the hall when the bell rang, exactly on time. He lifted the phone and heard Toby’s distorted voice howling in the earpiece. He pressed the button and heard the clunk of the electric lock echoing in the stairwell. He opened the front door but left it on the chain till he was sure Toby was alone.