Let's Die Of It Before We're Too

A Spy, Like A Writer, Lives Outside The Mainstream Population. He Steals His Experience Through Bribes And Reconstructs It.

I Grew Up In A Completely Bookless Household. It Was My Father's Boast That He Had Never Read A Book From End To End. I Don't Remember Any Of His Ladies Being Bookish. So I Was Entirely Dependent On My Schoolteachers For My Early Reading With The Exception Of The Wind In The Willows, Which A Stepmother Read To Me When I Was In Hospital.

Smiley Was Soaked To The Skin And God As A Punishment Had Removed All Taxis From The Face Of London.

When It's Going Well [writing] Goes Terribly Fast. It Isn't At All Surprising To Write A Chapter In A Day, Which For Me Is About Twenty-two Pages. When It's Going Badly, It Isn't Really Going Badly; It's Just The Beginning.

The World Of Spying Is My Genre. My Struggle Is To Demystify, To De-romanticise The Spook World, But At The Same Time Harness It As A Good Story.