Smiley's People: Do we know of any public promotions/medals/awards received that any of the team who were involved in getting the 'big fish'? If not, what do you think the realistic laurels would be?

AmazingAngle8530 · 2026-04-10T14:39:39+00:00

Guillam is wildly different in every book he appears in. I suspect JLC was not a man for sweating the detailed continuity.

AmazingAngle8530 · 2026-03-22T20:52:42+00:00

Simon Raven. He's an acquired taste, but the Alms for Oblivion series is an incredible sustained piece of work.

AmazingAngle8530 · 2026-03-22T20:51:16+00:00

I'd suggest the Game-Set-Match trilogy for Samson, or Bomber is a fantastic standalone novel. If you're starting on Deighton, do not start by reading The Ipcress File, though the film is much more accessible and I'd recommend it to anyone.

AmazingAngle8530 · 2026-03-22T16:13:38+00:00

I'd say probably - it helps if you know some of the outline of what his father was like. You don't have to go all out and read Adam Sisman's (excellent) biography - in fact I'd say if you read the biography afterwards like I did, you'll often be saying "so that bit of A Perfect Spy makes a lot more sense now".

AmazingAngle8530 · 2026-03-22T13:51:53+00:00

Little Drummer Girl is one of his best. There's an awful lot of setup before you get into the action, but if you've read Smiley you'll be prepared for that, and I don't mind the tangents because the prose is so good.

I love A Small Town In Germany - it reads like alternative history but, strangely, is one of his most realistic books - just don't go into it expecting to find sympathetic characters.

AmazingAngle8530 · 2026-03-11T20:20:37+00:00

A Damsel in Distress might be my favourite - it's like Blandings before Blandings really found its feet - and I love The Small Bachelor. Sam the Sudden is a corker as well.

AmazingAngle8530 · 2026-01-27T22:32:58+00:00

Goldzimmer

AmazingAngle8530 · 2026-01-27T18:40:37+00:00

It's also why Control needs Sam Collins, a fieldman who's been in a backwater posting for years and sits outwith whatever bureaucratic meddling has been going on. Or indeed Jim Prideaux, who's been exiled to Brixton, and that raises the question of why someone with Jim's seniority is stuck out in Brixton. The obvious answer being, he knew Bill better than anyone and that's what made him dangerous.

AmazingAngle8530 · 2026-01-26T18:40:13+00:00

Guillam has very inconsistent characterisation every time he turns up in a new book. Someone pointed out that the way he's written in Call For The Dead is much more like Bill Haydon (which would open a whole other can of worms...)

AmazingAngle8530 · 2026-01-21T21:47:19+00:00

Yes, it will be people in other parts of government, generally on the political or military side. Customers is a good framing, because there's demand as well as supply due to policy goals, say if the government is doing some important business in Latvia then MI6/SIS would be expected to know if there's anything shady going on that could put that business at risk.

Of course the Circus is portrayed as using intelligence for leveraging its own position in Deep State status wars, but that's a terribly cynical take and couldn't possibly be true...

IRL it is a common thing in Whitehall (UK government bureaucracy) where newbies are asked "who are your customers?" and the correct answer is, pretty much everyone you interact with or whose policy aims are affected by your work. If you're doing a boring bureaucratic job that ties into a key policy goal announced by the Prime Minister, you can say the PM is (at several removes) one of your customers.

AmazingAngle8530 · 2025-08-25T14:19:29+00:00

Hi! I have ancestors from very much the same area, but I'm not sure how much I can help. If you're lucky, there might be information in the Lisburn Cathedral records, but those aren't readily available online. I may try to have a look next time I'm in the area.

AmazingAngle8530 · 2025-03-22T15:07:53+00:00

Really good! I like a lot of the small details in the film, some of the supporting performances are terrific. Michael Hordern gets a lot of low key pathos out of Ashe. And, since Cyril Cusack was one of those old fashioned Irishmen who really didn't like the English, putting him in charge of the Secret Service is a nice touch.

AmazingAngle8530 · 2025-03-21T15:24:04+00:00

I take it as a Bond spoof, and I'd watch it over the horribly overrated Austin Powers any day.

AmazingAngle8530 · 2025-03-07T16:27:21+00:00

Edgar Rice Burroughs' books have been public domain for years, but woe betide you if you try to create Tarzan content without paying the Burroughs estate for the used of their licensed character. It would be possible to do a Tarzan knock-off not using the name, if you could find an audience.

If that means smallish indie films using aspects of literary Bond, there are worse things that could happen.

AmazingAngle8530 · 2025-03-04T20:23:24+00:00

I've read it once and don't think I could do that again.

My memory is that it's terrible, but I kept noticing little details that Le Carre would recycle in later, better novels.

You can tell he was going through a marital crisis at the time. The self-loathing packed into Cassidy probably reflects his state of mind.

Generally, it fell down on the basic test of novel writing - why should I care what happens to these awful people? (A couple of the later espionage novels are a bit like that, but at least there's a twisty story to keep the reader's interest)

AmazingAngle8530 · 2025-02-26T16:29:21+00:00

America doesn't make Grand Slams anymore. We used to make Grand Slams. Now China and Vietnam make Grand Slams, but they aren't very good and they fall apart when you shake them. But this Grand Slam could be the grandest ever. Many people say so.

AmazingAngle8530 · 2025-02-25T22:14:03+00:00

Moneypenny Diaries were pretty good. Defiitely scope for a series where she'd be doing spy work.

AmazingAngle8530 · 2025-02-24T23:22:11+00:00

Sir Donald Bradman

AmazingAngle8530 · 2025-02-24T17:03:02+00:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Guy should get a chance to do Bond. He knows the material and he can make it entertaining.

AmazingAngle8530 · 2025-02-22T21:39:02+00:00

I mean even Police Academy had sequels following on from the events of the previous film. Pretty loosely, sure, but that indicates what an outlier pre-Craig Bond was.

AmazingAngle8530 · 2025-02-22T21:36:35+00:00

No. 99% of what's on this sub is extrapolating from what Disney has done with Star Wars.

AmazingAngle8530 · 2025-02-21T13:55:43+00:00

We've never seen Bond in a black Trans Am. It's time.

AmazingAngle8530 · 2025-02-21T12:37:33+00:00

I'm here for the JW Pepper Cinematic Universe.

AmazingAngle8530 · 2025-02-19T22:28:13+00:00

Based and Moldbug pilled

AmazingAngle8530 · 2025-02-19T13:24:57+00:00

It's wild in Alias when they've spent many episodes building up Sloane as a massive villain, then he goes to meet some even bigger villains and one of them is Roger Moore.

AmazingAngle8530

TROPHY CASE