The Triumph of the Unlikely Hero

Published by Richard Doyle, June 26th, 2019

The Triumph of the Unlikely Hero

Tinker. Tailor. Soldier. Poorman. Beggarman.

These words reveal a fable of deceit and betrayal in the Cold War classic by John Le Carré. George Smiley is the chief molehunter and Jim Prideaux the wounded spy farmed out to early retirement in a Wiltshire prep school.

Alleline. Haydon. Bland. Esterhase. Smiley.

A tip-off. A renegade scalphunter. That Gerald is a Russian mole, run by Karla. And he’s pulled the Circus inside out. The language drew me in and I was captivated. Reading the novel on my Kindle took me back to adventure stories and spy thrillers I used to read as a teenager in Slough, when the Cold War was still raging in the Daily Mail.

Why am I telling you this? Well, if you’re fed up with James Bond or Jason Bourne as all-action heroes, spare a thought for the unassuming, bent figure of Jim Prideaux or the bookish, bespectacled gaze of George Smiley. Smiley is methodical and relentless in his pursuit of the mole. Think you could blow him over with one puff but when it comes to the storm he’s the only one left standing at the end of it. Prideaux is the best scalphunter of them all, he took two bullets in the back and survived gruelling interrogation before being brought back to England. He was Control’s final gamble in his struggle with the Soviet spymaster Karla. Control lost, but Smiley smells his prey. Does Prideaux guess who the mole is? He plays a waiting game and follows Smiley back to London. Once the mole is uncovered, the ending is clinical. His eyes were open and his head was propped unnaturally to one side... Prideaux returns to Wiltshire, and Smiley becomes caretaker at the Circus.

The Cold War is history and spies play a different game today, but I think we will always need heroes like Jim Prideaux and George Smiley. Both in fiction and in life.