Smiley’s People ends with such a powerful feeling of despair that overwhelms the success of his plans. In fiction, unlike real life, no one is happy once their arch enemy is defeated. Holmes repeatedly mourns Moriaty’s demise at the Reichenbach falls, Jerry feels pity for Tom and Tom for Jerry. I have never seen such a feeling of utter hopelessness portrayed so effectively as when Alec Guinness’s Droopy-like face, virtually immobile, witnesses the capture of Karla. It is the closest thing I have ever seen to that feeling I get when an exhibition is hung and ready for the public.
In two days Annabel and I travel to Southend to talk about our work to the degree students there. We haven’t really planned it yet beyond assembling various images of dead budgies, bingo callers, tumbleweed and tumbling spacemen. It will be like an autopsy.
