Very different to Le Carre's earlier books, darker bleaker, with the spy mystery playing second fiddle to the internal power struggles of the British establishment. For me, the book is summed up by an early passage,where LeClerc, the tunnel visioned head of the Department, living in the memory of wartime glory, and young Avery, the new blood, visit the widow of a colleague killed in action- they look up at the awful tower block he lived in unbeknownst to them: this was not the world they were trying to protect. Yet they continue in their insular, Oxford haunted enclave, sacrificing people, double crossing allies, inevitably failing. Dark and sad, it is an powerful if not joyful read.