One of the advantages..

[Gob]

of being off work with time on my hands, is the chance to sit down with a new book and read it cover to cover.

Just spent today reading;



Not his best, but a good engrossing read, and a worthy addition to his bibliography.

After recent work taking on American foreign policy (a bête noir of the author) and the big pharmaceutical companies, le Carré has returned to the concision of his early work, and in Our Kind of Traitor has delivered one of his most sheerly satisfying novels in years.

Britain is suffering under the recession, and a young couple – a leftish academic and his girlfriend (who is in the legal profession) – escape a depressed UK for a leisurely break on the Caribbean island of Antigua. But a meeting with a Russian millionaire by the name of Dima plunges the couple down the rabbit hole in a dizzying, picaresque odyssey in which the worlds of the City of London and the shadowy corridors of espionage collide.

In many ways, this is quite unlike any other John le Carré novel, even as it utilises familiar tropes. And the surprises here (which it would be criminal to reveal) demonstrate that one of our greatest writers – to his considerable credit – is refusing to stand still. --Barry Forshaw

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Our-Kind-Traito ... 249&sr=8-3

I've had the great pleasure of meeting David Cornwall (John Le Carre) on a couple of occasions, as he lives not far from our place in Cornwall. Chatted with him while out walking my dog on the cliff-top near his house once. It's hard not to be gushing when you're a big fan.

I collect signed first editions of his books.