The Honourable Schoolboy

John le Carré

Feb 2010 · BBC Digital Audio · Narrated by Anna Chancellor, Full Cast, Hugh Bonneville, and Simon Russell Beale

About this audiobook

George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess ‘the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin’. Smiley, now head of the Circus, must rebuild trust in the shattered organisation. He is also determined to destroy his nemesis, Karla, and his spy networks. He recruits Jerry Westerby, occasional spy, occasional news reporter, full-time romantic - the Honourable Schoolboy of the title - and despatches him to the Far East, where, amidst the corruption and decay of former colonies, a new battle is about to begin... Starring the award-winning Simon Russell Beale as Smiley, and with a star cast including Hugh Bonneville, Maggie Steed and Anna Chancellor, this gripping dramatisation perfectly captures the atmosphere of le Carré’s intricate, intriguing novel, the second in the Karla trilogy.

Ratings and reviews

This is not an audiobook. It is a radio drama. Missing a lot.

About the author

John le Carré was born in 1931 and attended the universities of Bern and Oxford. He taught at Eton before serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War. For more than fifty years he has lived by his pen. He divides his time between London and Cornwall. Hugh Bonneville's starred in Notting Hill, Iris, and Tomorrow Never Dies.His many TV appearances include Dr Zhivago, Tipping the Velvet and Madame Bovary, and his extensive theatre career encompasses numerous leading roles with the National Theatre and the RSC.