The Man Who Was George Smiley cover art

The Man Who Was George Smiley

 Preview

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

About this listen

After the Iraq War, when the reputation of Britain's spooks hit an all-time low, John le Carré's intellectual hero George Smiley came to be seen as the perfect spy, a man who would never allow intelligence to be misused for political purposes. Le Carré had revealed shortly before that the model for Smiley was the author and MI5 officer John Bingham, the 7th Baron Clanmorris. Michael Jago's brilliant account of Bingham's life is the story of an intelligence officer who had a deep influence on le Carré, then a junior colleague in MI5.

Like Smiley, Bingham was an expert interrogator who persuaded his subjects to give up the intelligence they were holding deep inside. He took part in many of MI5's greatest wartime and Cold War operations, from the Double Cross operation that ensured the success of D-Day, through the tracking of Soviet spies in Cold War Britain to the monitoring of Lord Lucan in the 1970s.

©2013 Michael Jago (P)2014 Audible, Inc. 20th Century Art & Literature Authors Europe Military & War Modern Military Espionage War Cold War
All stars
Most relevant
I very much enjoyed this book, it was fascinating to get the background to the real-life characters behind Smiley

Really excellent, fascinating book for Smiley fans

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book claims to be the story of the man
Smiley was based on .

Yet it tells nothing of substance of his career in mi 5

But rather is a tedious story of a forgotten minor novelist.

Don’t waste your money or time .

Misleading Title

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.