You Should Have Died When I Killed

Once You've Lived The Inside-out World Of Espionage, You Never Shed It. It's A Mentality, A Double Standard Of Existence.

I Have A Theory Which I Suspect Is Rather Immoral,' Smiley Went On, More Lightly. 'each Of Us Has Only A Quantum Of Compassion. That If We Lavish Our Concern On Every Stray Cat, We Never Get To The Centre Of Things.

I Was Quite Able At The Insignificant Work I Did In Mi6, But Absolutely Dysfunctional In My Domestic Life. I Had No Experience Of Fatherhood. I Had No Example Of Marital Bliss Or The Family Unit.

Yet It's Not For Want Of Future That I'm Here, He Thought. It's For Want Of A Present.

I Worked For Mi6 In The Sixties, During The Great Witch-hunts, When The Shared Paranoia Of The Cold War Gripped The Services.