A Legacy of Spies by John le Carré

Old spies reunite in John le Carré’s 2017-novel A Legacy of Spies.

At the heart of it all is Peter Guillam, a Lothario and former spy now retired in rural France. When a letter summons him back to London, Guillam is forced to review old operational files and account for actions taken. And not only his own actions, but those of colleagues George Smiley and Alec Leamas - characters from earlier le Carré books. Another returning rogue is Jim Prideaux - in one of my favourite scenes, and there are plenty of references to arch-villain Bill Haydon.

This is a novel told through interrogation, memory, reports, evasions, red herrings, and disinformation. It’s complex in structure and though I felt distanced from the historical action at first, I came to admire the evasive nature of the narrative - and thought the layering of case files added to the verisimilitude - as did the reappearance of characters from former novels. Great fun, if you like cold war espionage. And I do!