Editions

The Secret Pilgrim

  • Imprint: Penguin Classics

  • ISBN: 9780241337189

  • Length: 416  Pages

  • Dimensions: 197mm x 31mm x 127mm

  • Weight: 386g

  • RRP: £14.99

The Secret Pilgrim

The eighth of John le Carré's espionage novels to feature his most enduring and well-loved character, George Smiley, The Secret Pilgrim is a gripping feat of narrative brilliance.

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 late Smiley novel, the great spy gives his own humane and unexpected answers.

'Consummate and enthralling'
Observer

  • Imprint: Penguin Classics

  • ISBN: 9780241337189

  • Length: 416  Pages

  • Dimensions: 197mm x 31mm x 127mm

  • Weight: 386g

  • RRP: £14.99

Reviews

  • Le Carré writing at his exceptional best

    Mail on Sunday

  • Consummate and enthralling

    Observer

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About the Author

John le Carré

John le Carré was born in 1931 and died in 2020. He attended the universities of Bern and Oxford, and taught at Eton before serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War. For more than fifty years he lived by his pen.

John le Carré

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Recommendations

Where to start reading John le Carré books

His death this week marked the end of a career which produced internationally acclaimed novels in every decade from the 1960s onwards. Le Carré’s work was enjoyed by readers and critics alike and adapted multiple times for film and television, making him one of the most celebrated and influential authors of modern times. But where to start if you’re new to this work? Here is our starter for ten.
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Features

Florence Pugh reads The Little Drummer Girl

Alongside Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Shannon, Florence Pugh stars in The Little Drummer Girl, the latest adaptation of John le Carré’s thrilling novel of espionage and betrayal. Here she reads le Carré’s description of the character that she herself plays in the BBC series.
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Extracts

The Pigeon Tunnel by John le Carre

In this extract from The Pigeon Tunnel, John le Carré describes the accusations of disloyalty he faced from former Secret Service colleagues - and how Alec Guinness used them in his portrayal of George Smiley

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