Introduction: "a nation's political health": le Carré and Cold-War Britain

Alarm call: the communist threat and call for the dead

"Breeze blocks and barbed wire": the Berlin Wall and The spy who came in from the cold

"Looking at his own reflection": the establishment and The looking glass war

"Holding the world together": Tinker tailor soldier spy

"All one vanishing world": The honourable schoolboy

"It was a man": Smiley's people

Conclusion: "man not the mass."