Writing about Le Carré is chancy. Ever since 1962, when The Spy Who Came In from the Cold was published, he has been the standard by which other writers of the so-called international thriller are measured. A couple of years ago I got the garland "Le Carré of the Year." The next season it was passed to the succeeding pretender. Le Carré stayed the constant. With his new novel, The Little Drummer Girl, he remains ahead of us, dwelling at, exploring, the very end of espionage as the analogy he helped create….

In each new book, Le Carré becomes more involved and entangled in espionage as the professional technique it really is. This is the context and lesson of his work as it has developed: ever more detailed means, ever more obscure ends….

This may be the best and most complete novel about espionage technique, about its psychoanalytical application...