‘Point me and I’ll march’: Mick Herron re-reads the novels of John le Carré

"My memory tells me it happened like this: I was watching TV; it was 1979. The programme was a new drama serial, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, about the search for a mole in the British secret service – and if 'mole' was a part of my vocabulary then, it would have been from reading about this very programme. My parents were in their usual chairs. I can’t remember who else was in the room, or whether it was a weeknight, or what time of year it was, but I do remember that during the opening scene we watched the characters assemble for a meeting. One – who would turn out to be Bill Haydon, as played by Ian Richardson – entered carrying a cup of tea, on top of which he’d balanced a saucer, to prevent spillage. ... Memory also tells me that by the time the second part of the drama was screened I had read the novel, and knew who the mole was, and if an unconventional manner of carrying a cup and saucer wasn’t explicitly cited as indicative of treachery, it probably counted as circumstantial evidence. This was a world of nuance, after all. ..."
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