Smiley, although the controlling character, is not present in much of the book. Le Carré’s style is clear and straight forward, the spy jargon, with the defined interwoven into the narrative, moving rapidly from one set of characters, all fully developed, to the next. There are many characters and the action moves rapidly between Smiley in London and Westerby as he travels all over the various locations in the Far East. In his search for Karla, Smiley sends Jerry Westerby, the eponymous Honourable Schoolboy to Hong King, undercover as a reporter, where he discovers a money laundering operation run by Moscow Intelligence and also an opium smuggling operation. Safe houses were closed and spies were recalled from abroad. Smiley has Karla’s photo on his wall, determined to chase him down in revenge. He is appointed as a caretaker chief of the British Secret Service, known as ‘the Circus’, the name derived from the address of that organisation’s secret headquarters, Cambridge Circle. He then goes on to tell what happened afterwards as Smiley set about dealing with the consequences of that mole’s betrayal. So, if you haven’t read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy you may want to read it before reading The Honourable Schoolboy because le Carré reveals the identity of that ‘mole’ in the first paragraph. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ends as George Smiley unmasks the identity of the ‘mole’, recruited by Karla, his Russian counterpart, as a spy within the British Secret Service. It certainly isn’t a book to read when you’re tired – you need to read it with a clear mind and be prepared to let yourself get fully immersed in the story. The amount of detail is staggering and for a while I was rather confused about what was happening. To say this has a complicated plot is a huge understatement.
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