I read that John Le Carré wrote the Smiley character as a direct response to Bond, making him chubby and kinda boring, and one that goes through the motions to get the job done, rather than getting the drinks and the girls and the rock and roll side of things. Despite that, it’s still a really good espionage thriller - a suicide that was actually a murder, several attacks on our hero, plus quite a lot of time spent at the theatre. I really quite liked it. Although I think I do like Bond better, I’ll be interested to read more of this Smiley chap.

At first glance, this feels like a good, traditional Bond story, with a big bad to overcome, a girl or two to deal with along the way, and some help from Felix Leiter just when it’s needed. But actually when you look closer, the book veers so far from the debonair James Bond that we know it’s almost a different character.

When I was checking my book review list for Roald Dahl works, I realised I’m a bit short on the complete package. I’ve read a lot of them, obviously, but not documented it. So I checked what was in my digital library and stumbled across this one. James was never one of my favourite stories, I think perhaps the giant insects weren’t a great incentive to read it over and over again.