LE CARRÉ, John.

£3,000 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

The Looking-Glass War. First edition, inscribed by the author on the title page, "For Nigel Watte, this difficult but honest effort that followed 'The Spy Who...' & temporarily arrested my rising star! John le Carré, 10 X '00, Cornwall".Le Carré regretted how The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963) popularized spy life in too glamorous and unrealistic a light. His next novel, The Looking-Glass War, was a complete reversal: "This time, cost what it will, I'll describe a Secret Service that is really not very good at all; that is eking out its wartime glory; that is feeding itself on Little England fantasies; is isolated, directionless, overprotected and destined ultimately to destroy itself" (introduction to the 2013 edition). Though this angle was appreciated in America and the rest of Europe, in Britain it was overwhelmingly criticised. The author explained this was due to spies being "a protected species in our national psychology... Never mind how many times they trip over their cloaks and leave their daggers on the train to Tonbridge, the spies can do no wrong" (New Yorker).Nonetheless, appreciation for the work in Britain grew slowly over time and it was adapted for film in 1970.

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