Actually by John (David Cornwall)'s son Nick Harkaway - I really did not enjoy this. Using many of his Dad's words and style but a pastiche rather than a homage, full of cliches and awful metaphors and similes, 100% missing the SOUL of Le Carre which is what made his books so brilliant. One of my least favourite winter reads - a shame as I was really looking forward to it.

A new Smiley! By his son! Brilliant! But it wasn't. Such a shame. I suspect that was what made Le Carre great (he was one of my all time favourite writers, as was Graham Greene, who felt the same about John). His rather dodgy morality - clearly NOT inherited by his decent son.

It doesn't seem surprising that a spy would have dodgy morality. They must be adept at lying and deceiving.

I haven't read the Le Carre books - must get round to that sometime - but really enjoyed the old Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy series with Sir Alec Guinness. Loved his subtle performance, the other actors' performances too and the slow pace. I wasn't impressed by the film with Gary Oldman as Smiley and wouldn't have been able to follow it without having seen the old series first.

I'm not a fan of deceased author's "new" works being written by others. It seems to imply that the talent is fully heritable or can be imitated. All part of the steady de-humanisation of our species. AI won't be able to capture it either; I am sure we will discover...