Gary's Reviews > The Honourable Schoolboy

This is the second in John le Carré’s trilogy starring George Smiley as the most important character although the main protagonist is really the man of the title, The Honourable Gerald Westerby, known as Jerry (shouldn’t that be Gerry?) Chronologically, this book follows Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy but is complete in itself and the two stories are only loosely connected, so you can read this quite happily if you haven’t read TTSS. Like its predecessor, this is complicated, exciting, incredibly well thought out, difficult to predict and a joy to read.

The time is 1974/1975, the place, the Far East, mostly Hong Kong, which is still run by the UK. The Americans are losing Vietnam, the war has spilled over into Laos, the Khmer Rouge have almost taken Cambodia, and there is a thriving trade in opium in the region. The People’s Republic of China is known as Red China and is the great power in the region, of course, and is to be feared. Hong Kong itself is a hotbed of money, crime, espionage, fast living and big business.

Jerry Westerby is a British journalist who occasionally works for The Circus, as MI6 is known in these books (because its offices are in Cambridge Circus, London). He is experienced, clever, resourceful and well trained, so an excellent ‘field man’ for the Service. This is not apparent at the beginning of the story because he has been set aside and is kicking his heels in Tuscany with a young woman he picked up along the way.

The plot concerns the following up of a lead by George Smiley and his inner circle. This concerns a financial arrangement that has been noticed in Vientiane, Laos, and because it involves the Russian Embassy is of interest to MI6. The rest of the story describes how this lead is followed up, how it develops into something bigger and what they all do to try to unpick the knot. This encompasses a host of people, places and scenarios, as well as Whitehall infighting and politics. Also in the mix is the relationship between MI6 and the American CIA, which has infinitely more resources at its disposal.

I have not read this one before but I wish I had, it is excellent and I recommend it.

My only criticism is that the book seems to have been edited by an American. There are one or two instances of wording sounding more American than British despite it having been written by a British author and originally published by what I thought was a British publisher, Hodder and Stoughton. I believe many publishers are now owned by American ones so perhaps they imposed their ‘house style’ on the book, which I can understand but dislike – but that’s life. I am sure it won’t put anyone off reading the book and it shouldn’t because the book is wonderful.