Charges of Geresy

** This review contains spoilers **

I hadn’t read any of John Le Carre’s books before. I actually listened to this as an audiobook read by the author himself. He is a very good narrator, and does a range of voices, from the fed-up, drawling female secretary to the gruff, stiff upper lipped Kit Probyn. Besides this being a joy to listen to, the story was also very good, and Le Carre (real name Cornwell) is able to dovetail multiple stories together to result in a dramatic conclusion, with an interesting commentary on the inner politics of the British Foreign Office, and a sketch of the diverse array of characters who call it their home.
Also, Le Carre has a unique way of describing things, to quote an example – “a sheet of blue-black rain” – which was highlighted by another reviewer.
“Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue” – Giles Oakley quoting La Rochefoucauld. I suppose that this entire book is about hypocrisy in some way or another, and perhaps sadly concludes that the only way to survive in the foreign office is to continue to live as a hypocrite. Those men who fight against hypocrisy, Jeb Owens, Toby Bell, and eventually Giles Oakley, meet untimely deaths, extraditions, beatings and arrests. All in all, it’s a pretty grim view of the world, and I hope that the reality is at the very least a watered down version…