The adaptation of "The Night Manager" is excellent IMO. It's a miniseries of sorts (only 6 episodes), however Hugh Laurie & Tom Hiddleston deliver top-notch performances. It's available on Prime Video and other streaming services in the US.
[dead]
John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel
51–60 of 123 posts
Re: John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel
#52Anyone have any recommendations for other classic spy novels like le Carre’s? I’ve read some Greene and Deighton, which were both mentioned in the article, so I suppose I should revisit those, but would be interested in any other works with a similar scene and setting. One of my favorite le Carre tidbits - apparently in the UK and US versions of “Tinker, Tailor,” a character in one version takes a ferry in Hong Kong,…
Robert Littell’s spy novels up through Vicious Circle are wonderful. He wrote The Company, which has been adapted for the screen.
There may be more than one show called "The Company"; I'm not sure. I watched one episode of a show of that name, and really liked it. I think it was in two episodes, and I missed the second. Ever since, I've been waiting for it to be repeated.
Re: John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel
#53The works of Elleston Trevor, writing as Adam Hall, are also worth a look. His protagonist is named Quiller, and perhaps the best known work is "The Berlin Memorandum" adapted into a film titled "The Quiller Memorandum".
Re: John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it is because the novel has entered the subconscious of spy fiction and so many things have been inspired by it intentionally or not that it doesn't seem as fresh as it once did. But at the time, the notion that intelligence work is a dirty game and that everybody follows basically the same rulebook was pretty novel and even shocking. These days this is just generally accepted as true -- even the recent James…
Thanks for that insight. I read the book for the first time in 2015, well after it had already established itself. I can see the appeal if it had a revelatory view on spycraft at the time.
Cornwall (Le Carre) said that the tradecraft was deliberately fictitious as he created the consequences of revealing secrets from his time in MI6. Amusingly, real spies then adopted his terminology.
Re: John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Anyone have any recommendations for other classic spy novels like le Carre’s? Probably not comparable, but Frederick Forsyth's novels are great. He wrote The Day of the Jackal, The Fourth Protocol, etc. If you want a taste for his books, I would suggest The Devil's Alternative.
I always recommend The Dogs of War as a first Forsyth novel, and No Comebacks as a first Forsyth reader. No Comebacks: 1. Are all short stories, so good for the reader who is not yet invested in Forsyth 2. Starts with the titular story, which (IMO) is a pretty good capture of Forsyth plot and story-telling.
I find it hilarious how Dogs of War is different as the book and the movie. The movie is a classical '80s thing with big guns and explosions. The book on the other hand gets into great detail about the logistics of organizing a coup, holding accounts, export licenses for arms, etc. Forsyth would've probably preferred to write it as a non-fiction book, but making it a work of fiction vastly extended his life expectancy.
Re: John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel
#56My favorite Le Carre book is probably The Perfect Spy (especially that it is autobiographical to a great extent).
Re: John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel
#57I really liked the book, and recommend it wholeheartedly, with the note that one should have some good knowledge about the cold war to understand it. I do not agree with the review though. Spoilers ahead. The novel isn't about "about a lasting, even defiant humanism in the face of battling ideologies". The humanism wasn't very lasting or defiant. The most likeably and humanist character -- the pretty jewish girl, was…
Cornwall was a full-on liberal, very woke and cynical about the state despite being one of its minions. He was always on TV berating Tony Blair or the tories. He had this in common with very many of the junior ranks of MI5/6 with whom there was a great divide with the upper echelons who were loyal cynical establishment servants. It's difficult to imagine him knowingly serving as the propaganda arm of MI6.
Re: John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel
#58If you like that, you might also enjoy "The Company" by Robert Littell.
Re: John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel
#59Anyone have any recommendations for other classic spy novels like le Carre’s? I’ve read some Greene and Deighton, which were both mentioned in the article, so I suppose I should revisit those, but would be interested in any other works with a similar scene and setting. One of my favorite le Carre tidbits - apparently in the UK and US versions of “Tinker, Tailor,” a character in one version takes a ferry in Hong Kong,…
I like all of his George Smiley novels. But perhaps the most haunting for me is The Looking Glass War ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Looking_Glass_War ). I had just urned 50 when I read it and was actually surrounded by a lot of people ranging 60-80. While a spy novel, it’s almost more of dark comic tragedy on the power of nostalgia. I easily find the storyline transferrable to some of the “established” organi…
I thought it was common knowledge that John le Carré's "The looking-glass war" (I agree with your recommendation of it) was inspired by the story of Lionel Crabb (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Crabb) but neither Wikipedia page seems to refer to the other.
Re: John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel
#60The adaptation of "The Night Manager" is excellent IMO. It's a miniseries of sorts (only 6 episodes), however Hugh Laurie & Tom Hiddleston deliver top-notch performances. It's available on Prime Video and other streaming services in the US.
It's British. In Britain 6 episodes is a series ;)
And quite a long one. I had to buy a whole new box of tea to get through it all.