Many years ago, when I was a teenager and liked my books zappy and fun, I was given The Spy who Came in from the Cold by John le Carre to read. I was working in the library system at this time and this was one of those books with huge waiting lists and everyobdy had said how good it was, so home it came with me. Well, I finished it but oh my goodness I found it so dreary and downbeat and dense and though I went to see the film (Richard Burton and Claire Bloom, both excellent) I still couldn't understand half of what was going on.
Flash forward to the 1970s when the BBC produced its sublime Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (which I posted about here), and my husband and I were glued to the TV scared to leave the room or lose concentration for one moment in case we missed a subtle point and got wildly lost. Thank heavens each episode was repeated just before the screening of the next one or heaven knows how we would have kept track of it all. Then came Smiley's People, both of them starring the sublime Alec Guinness as Smiley, equally enthralling and atmospheric.
Over the last few months Radio 4 have produced new adaptations of the Smiley novels with the simply marvellous Simon Russell Beale as George S and I am finding them quite mesmerising. Sitting quietly on the sofa listening to these actors with glorious voices conjuring up pictures in my mind as they speak is a totally different experience to my reading and I am wallowing in them.
Then it suddenly struck me a few weeks ago, I know Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley's People, I know the stories, the characters, what happens all its intricacies, cover ups, lamplighters, the Circus etc etc and yet, I have never read the books. I was under the impression that I had, but of course my knowledge of them came from the TV and the radio. I was so appalled by this lack on my part that I sent off to Amazon for a copy of Tinker (having checked my library on several occasions, not a single Le Carre to be spotted anywhere), hit the wrong button and Smiley's People arrived instead. Oh well, read them out of order, it doesn't really matter as the contents are hardly a surprise to me and so the other day sat down with this book and could not put it down. Not only because it is so intricately plotted that losing the thread, as with the TV is fatal, but because the quality of the writing is so extraordinarily high that I did not want to lose a minute.
I felt as if I was reading Henry James, though I hasten to add, Le Carre's writing is not so convoluted but it is similar in the sheer perfection of each word, the placement of it, the emphasis, the structure - as you read it flows exquisitely and you never feel for one moment that there is a single dot or comma or nuance that is out of place. When you come across writing of this quality it is such a profound pleasure to read and to listen to it being spoken on the radio is the icing on the cake.
No need for me to map out the plot of Smiley's People - not sure I could actually - but just to say George meets his nemesis, Karla, the man who has haunted him for so long and though I could remember the final scene from the series some thirty years ago now, I still found I was on the edge of my seat and could not put the book down until the final page.
I have now put in an order for three other titles by John le Carre and am so looking forward to their arrival. Over the last few years, since writing this blog, I have discovered authors that have been around on the periphery of my reading life for decades, I have stamped them in and out in various libraries, I have shelved them, I have stuck labels in them and have seen copies of them in bookshops and in airports and only now am I discovering some of the riches that have been sitting there waiting to be discovered.
Amongst these authors are E F Benson, Dorothy Whipple, P G Wodehouse, D L Sayers, more of L M Montgomery, more of Louisa May Alcott, Anthony Trollope, Ada Leverson, Frank Hargreaves, E M Delafield, Richmal Crompton, Edith Wharton and many other delights stumbled upon. And now John Le Carre.
Getting older certainly has its upside.....
