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The Secret Pilgrim

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The Secret Pilgrim

By: John le Carré
Narrated by: Michael Jayston
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The Cold War is over and Ned has been demoted to the training academy. He asks his old mentor, George Smiley, to address his passing-out class. There are no laundered reminiscences; Smiley speaks the truth - perhaps the last the students will ever hear. As they listen, Ned recalls his own painful triumphs and inglorious failures, in a career that took him from the Western Isles of Scotland to Hamburg and from Israel to Cambodia. He asks himself: Did it do any good? What did it do to me? And what will happen to us now? In this final Smiley novel, the great spy gives his own humane and unexpected answers.

© John le Carré 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024

 Espionage Mystery Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense War
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A Legacy of Spies By: John le Carré
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A good listen to some of someone's possibly experiences in the spying business through different eras.

Plausible stories

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I wish all Michael Jayston's narrations of John le Carre books were available on audible.

excellent narration

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I am a big fan of John Le Carre novels but if i had read this one first i am not certain i would have read anymore.
I was expecting an epic story but instead it’s a look back at stand out moments in a spy’s career. George Smiley appears only really to add spy philosophy to the mix.
Overall it was a rather dull read with no gripping plot.
The narrator reads well and his George Smiley sounds a lot like Alec Guinness’s voicing of the character in the BBC Smiley episodes.

A spy’s look back over his career

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More a series of short stories than a novel. Nowhere near the same standard as tinker, tailor, soldier, spy.

Disappointing

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This is excellent, and it isn't even the best George Smiley book, let alone the the best John Le Carre. Of course, it's helped enormously by the reading. Michael Jayston was a superb actor and reader, and fits this author like a glove. I wish I had purchased more of his readings before they withdrew those files, and replaced them with Simon Russell Beale, et al.

All told, if you have not read a John Le Carre before, maybe don't start with this one, but do put it on your Wish List to listen to soon. And if you see any physical copies of the novels NOT currently read by MIchael Jayston on Audible: treat yourself!

A 20th Century classic

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