I wouldn’t choose the novels of John le Carré as my special subject on Mastermind.
I have read many featuring George Smiley and seen them on film and TV but only possess three, one of which was the subject of a blog in 2019: A Murder of Quality. This week I added to my meagre tally.
I hope you saw the TV adaptation of le Carré’s The Night Manager on the BBC in 2016 with memorable performances led by Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston, age before beauty. It features in many blogs one of which recounts my first and so far my only meeting with Tom Hiddleston, on the threshold of his career on stage and screen. If you enjoyed the series as much as I did, I have good news for you; a second series is on the way. It will still be called The Night Manager and I suppose will be an homage to J le C.
Exciting though this is there has been a blunder. Single & Single is a standalone novel (1999) in the same genre as the N M and cries out to be made into a TV series. There is a starring role for Tom, a peach of a plot with mystery, twists, violence, sex and action set in England, Istanbul, Moscow and Georgia. Since the BBC is too bone-headed to make a series about what’s under its nose you will have to read the book. I snagged a first edition on Abe Books – curiously it was the cheapest option, leading me to believe it’s not very well known.
I seldom re-read books in this genre so I am always looking out for something new. At the moment I’m reading A Spy Alone (2023). It is Charles Beaumont’s first novel and I hope he will stick to his knitting. His biography is exiguous.
“Charles Beaumont worked undercover as an M!6 operative in war zones, on diplomatic missions and in international business. His work spanned two decades and four continents. This is his first novel.”
I am charmed by “international business” and will use it instead of the prosaic “oil futures broker”. Anyway Beaumont is a worthy heir to J l C although there are others.