No fool like an old fool

And I can totter forward to be the living proof but, happily, there are even older fools to provide better examples.  For example, John le Carré, the author of the superb 'Smiley' series of books which I have long admired has just mumbled some prize rubbish.  According to Mr. Charles Moore in The Telegraph, le Carré has let it be known that he is a determined 'Remoaner' and that his fictional hero, George Smiley, is equally upset by Brexit because “everything he was doing was for Europe”: “If he had a dream, it was to see a Europe unified.” 

Well, like Mr. Moore, I am unable to dispute le Carré's knowledge of the texts of his own books but I cannot remember a single indication that George Smiley was pro-European, in fact, I suspect that if one could get past his enigmatic exterior, all you would find was a powerful British patriotism.  Mr. Moore sums it up thus:

I admit I have not re-read the Smiley novels to check how often the hero refers in glowing terms to the EU, but I remember no such remarks. In the Seventies Le Carré advanced the year in which Smiley was recruited for the service to 1937 (which makes him roughly 100 years old), so he had already been in it for 20 years before the Treaty of Rome was signed.

He must have left well before the European Union (as opposed to Community) was invented in 1993. Throughout his time – as today – espionage was not an EEC matter, but a sovereign one. Our only really important intelligence ally in the European theatre was the United States of America. He spent his life “defending the flag”, says his creator. Yes, the British one, not the EU one.

I was intending to buy a copy of le Carré's latest book which, I understand, harks back to the very best one he ever wrote The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, which ended with its hero, Alec Leamus, shot dead following a double-cross by - guess who? - some bloody East German European!  I may give it a pass!

 

Comments

[Whitewall]

Huh, east Europeans today are threatened by Moscow to the east, Brussels to the west and Islam to the south.

[Bob]

George Smiley is le Carré's character. If he says Smiley's a remainer it's true now.

[Cuffleyburgers]

I absolutely loved the Smiley books and an awful lot of the rest of Le Carré's oeuvre, however I definitely noticed a weakening in the quality of the later stuff, and some such as the Constant Gardener are utter tosh.

So not really surprised by this "news" and couldn't really give a monkey's either way.

[David Duff]

Bob, there's never anything 'true' about Smiley and his double-dealers!

Cuffers, you summed it up excellently!

[Whyaxye]

I've never read any of his books, but whatever their merit the remoaners are bereft of good arguments if they are relying on the preferences of fictional characters.

Having said that, the wishes of fictional characters are worth far more than those of Anthony Charles Lynton Blair.

[David Duff]

'W', I strongly advise you to try 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'. It might well feel a bit out-dated today but it is an absolute corker!

[mike fowle]

Kingsley Amis, who wrote a James Bond pastiche, but with approval, (Colonel Sun by Robert Markham), argued that whereas Bond was a patriot and hence despised by the left, Le Carre's world is full of double dealing and no admirable characters. Hence regarded by the left as much more true to life.

[AussieD]

I liked The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

A pity Le Carre has gone potty. I agree with Cuffers about The Constant Gardener. Disappointing.