The Honourable Schoolboy


The Honourable Schoolboy is a spy novel by John le Carré. George Smiley must reconstruct an intelligence service in order to run a successful offensive espionage operation to save the service from being dismantled by the government. In 1977, the book won the Gold Dagger award for the best crime novel of the year and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. The Honourable Schoolboy is the second novel in the omnibus titled either Smiley Versus Karla or The Quest for Karla.

Chronology

This is the sixth le Carré spy novel featuring George Smiley. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People were later published as an omnibus edition titled Smiley Versus Karla in 1982.

Plot

In 1974 George Smiley, the chief of the British secret intelligence service referred to as The Circus, is repairing the damage done to their operations by double agent Bill Haydon and looking for opportunities to target Karla, the Moscow Centre spymaster. Smiley and analysts Connie Sachs and Doc di Salis look into investigations suppressed by the outed mole and find that a historic investigation of a money laundering operation in Laos by Sam Collins could indicate a Moscow intelligence operation.
Smiley dispatches Jerry Westerby, a newspaper reporter and occasional Circus operative, to Hong Kong under the guise of a sports journalist. Westerby traces the Soviet money to Drake Ko, a local businessman with links to both the criminal underworld and the British establishment. London establishes that Drake Ko has a brother, Nelson, who is a high-ranking Chinese official and who has been spying on the Chinese for the Soviets.
Westerby, following up leads provided by London, interviews Drake's English mistress Lizzie Worthington and discovers that Drake has been attempting to set-up an illicit air route into China. Charlie Marshall and Tiny Ricardo were approached by Drake to carry opium into China, and return with a package. The flights were never completed, and Smiley surmises that the package was Nelson, who wished to defect from China. The money supplied by Moscow was intended for Nelson, to be accessed after he left China.
Nelson would be a prime intelligence source on both Soviet and Chinese capabilities and political maneuverings between London and Washington hamper the investigation. It is finally agreed that the Circus will run the operation to capture Nelson and interrogate him afterwards, with all information shared with the United States. Smiley instructs Westerby to become more pro-active in his investigations, forcing Drake to move forwards with his plans to extract Nelson. In the course of this Westerby travels in and out of war-torn Vietnam, Ricardo tries to kill Westerby, and two of his colleagues in Hong Kong are murdered. Westerby becomes increasingly stressed and begins to obsess over Lizzie's situation, the ethics of the operation and Western involvement in Asia.
Sam Collins has blackmailed Lizzie into bugging and informing on Drake. The Circus now has enough information to predict Drake's plan, which replicates his own escape from China via sea. Westerby is ordered to return to London. Westerby ignores this and contacts Lizzie to warn her of the danger she is in. Smiley along with Circus and CIA operatives arrive in Hong Kong to oversee the final stages of the operation. Smiley and his men encounter Westerby and try to force him to board a plane but Westerby escapes and with Lizzie's help, reaches the rendezvous point where Drake will meet with his brother. Westerby warns Drake of the plans of the intelligence agencies in an effort to protect Lizzie from reprisal and to have an opportunity to be with her. Drake does not heed Westerby's warning; at their appointed meeting place on the beach, CIA forces seize Nelson, and Westerby is killed by Fawn, a Circus operative, on Smiley's orders.
In the aftermath, the CIA, and not the Circus, detain and interrogate Nelson. The success of the operation yields top Circus jobs for Collins, who becomes Chief of the Circus. Smiley and Connie Sachs are retired and most of the older generation of Circus personnel are moved on. In the aftermath of the debacle, Peter Guillam contemplates the possibility that Smiley allowed the CIA to gain the upper hand so as to have himself removed as head of the Circus.

Circus jargon

The characters' jargon establishes the fictional authenticity of the espionage portrayed in The Honourable Schoolboy; examples of John le Carré's tradecraft language are:
Tradecraft termDefinition
AgentAn external, freelance person recruited to provide information and services; Circus staff are referred to as intelligence officers.
BurrowersCircus researchers, usually academics recruited from universities.
CircusThe British secret intelligence service headquartered at Cambridge Circus.
The CompetitionThe internal UK counter-espionage and counter-terrorism security service, whom the Circus often calls "The Security Mob".
The CousinsThe CIA in particular, and US intelligences services in general.
FerretsTechnicians responsible for finding and removing hidden microphones, cameras and other surveillance devices.
HousekeepersInternal auditors and disciplinary staff of the Circus.
JanitorsOperations staff
LamplightersControl surveillance and couriers.
MothersSecretaries and trusted typists serving the head of the Circus.
Nuts and BoltsEngineers who develop and manufacture espionage devices.
Pavement ArtistsCircus officers responsible for covert street surveillance.
ScalphuntersThe most Bondlike part of The Circus, "Cosh and Carry" that was sidelined after Control's dismissal.
ShoemakersCircus forgers
BabysittersBodyguards
WranglersRadio signal analysts and cryptographers; the name derives from Wrangler maths students.

Characters

The Circus
The Steering Committee
Other characters
, producer of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, said the BBC considered producing The Honourable Schoolboy but a production in South East Asia was considered prohibitively expensive and therefore the BBC instead adapted the third novel of the Karla Trilogy, Smiley's People, which was transmitted in 1982.
In 1983 the BBC adapted The Honourable Schoolboy to radio. Martin Jarvis played Jerry Westerby and Peter Vaughan played George Smiley. A subsequent BBC radio adaptation, first broadcast in 2010 in the Classic Serial slot, featured Simon Russell Beale as George Smiley and Hugh Bonneville as Jerry Westerby, as part of Radio 4's year-long project to adapt all eight Smiley novels.