The Secret Pilgrim is one of le Carre's most brilliantly written novels. It is a "framed" story, with an outer story that surrounds the main story; the frame is Smiley's talk with Ned's students. This frame allows for three different generations of spies to interact.

Smiley represents the World War II generation, which joined British intelligence when anything seemed possible, when the world seemed ready to be made good, peaceful, and safe, with the British Empire still intact. For Smiley's generation, the 1950s and 1960s were profoundly disillusioning.

Ned represents the generation that joined British intelligence during the height of the Cold War, when spying was a murderously desperate contest between nations. His students represent the future; they are the hope for better days, when it may be possible that spying will become less of a deadly war for national self-preservation.

The interactions among these characters provide perspective...