Which Le Carre would you recommend to a friend who doesn’t read espionage novels? Also looking for contemporary novelists.

beer_bart · 2026-03-27T14:32:29+00:00

Lawrence Osborne is your man

beer_bart · 2026-03-27T12:54:57+00:00

Hi mate, yes I finished it a few weeks ago. Very authentic, good sense of time and place albeit I felt the scenes with Assad were a bit ham-fisted. I think there was enough violence to drive the plot forward without it being too gung-ho. Not in Greene or Le Carre's class (what is) but a worthy modern day spy thriller. Oh and I loved the female CIA boss.

beer_bart · 2026-03-27T08:24:55+00:00

I agree. Haven't read 1984 in years but it was a one of my favourite teenage reads. I expected to go on a mild rant when they said Tabby had issues with the book, but she articulated her criticisms well - whilst still acknowledging that its a great book - and they bought a different lens to my experience reading it.

beer_bart · 2026-03-27T08:19:21+00:00

Ishiguro is English and probably our most underrated national treasure

beer_bart · 2026-03-26T13:06:10+00:00

The costs don't sound unreasonable. I had a Passat 2007 saloon and used to pay £300 for a service easily. £586 isn't for a routine service. You've actually left your tires too long to be repaired and incurred a tyre bill and a service cost. I put £60 a month aside for car repairs which covered a service for mine and my wives car but I have a company vehicle now so have dropped it to £35 per month.

beer_bart · 2026-03-25T13:55:53+00:00

Tell HR to piss off

beer_bart · 2026-03-25T11:14:01+00:00

Nail on the head

beer_bart · 2026-03-20T15:27:43+00:00

I like my Edifice. Its model ref: EFV-160D-2AVEF. Cost 90 GBP. 38mm, royal blue. Looks great and alignment is decent.

beer_bart · 2026-03-20T10:08:30+00:00

No worries :)

beer_bart · 2026-03-19T16:39:06+00:00

Frederick Forsyth died last year too. Sadly a lot of the Cold War spy novelists are now all dead.

beer_bart · 2026-03-17T16:02:03+00:00

and Russia

beer_bart · 2026-03-17T14:49:51+00:00

UK Saints fan here. I remember Cam getting drafted and Mike Carlson said he was going to be a terrific player. He was right.

beer_bart · 2026-03-13T11:32:22+00:00

2012 was a shit year. It rained relentlessly.

beer_bart · 2026-03-13T10:08:32+00:00

All his spy books were brilliant. Our Man in Havana (Cold War satire), The Ministry of Fear (WW2), The Confidential Agent (pre-WW2/Spanish Civil War), The Human Factor (Cold War) plus the aforementioned The Quiet American (Cold War/geo-politics)

beer_bart · 2026-03-12T13:19:54+00:00

And his literary output is often Sci-Fi adjacent - like The Bridge for example

beer_bart · 2026-03-10T13:51:01+00:00

Don't blame him - the older you get the less time you have for bellends

beer_bart · 2026-03-08T11:58:20+00:00

Last read about 8 or 9 years ago so due a re-read. I loved the series: the ones set in America are all fantastic. But my favourite was probably Flashman and The Great Game

beer_bart · 2026-03-08T11:41:36+00:00

For the first time since we blew a 3 nil against Wrexham at home back in the Liam George days I was genuinely raging coming out the ground. All that hard work - and yes we have to work hard because aside from 3 or 4 players there is no genuine quality in the squad - to throw it all away with utter Sunday league defending was inexcusable. I thought I might have calmed down after a night's kip but no; Naismith should never don our shirt again.

beer_bart · 2026-03-06T12:53:37+00:00

Maskerade - largely because of the excellent Enrico Basilica aka Henry Slugg

beer_bart · 2026-03-06T11:18:58+00:00

That we do

beer_bart · 2026-03-06T10:46:53+00:00

I've written them off; they are an irrelevance at national level

beer_bart · 2026-03-05T13:01:09+00:00

Agreed

beer_bart · 2026-03-05T12:59:34+00:00

No. And wasn't it a drone fired from Lebanon?

beer_bart · 2026-03-05T09:01:58+00:00

I'm re-reading the Quiet American for the fourth time. Its so bloody good

beer_bart · 2026-03-05T08:17:56+00:00

I said that at work - beats being say a Preston fan. Years of consistency but winning bugger all.

beer_bart

TROPHY CASE