16 October 2019

"Agent Running Afield" - Contemporary Times For Espionage-Spy Thriller Novelist John le Carré's 25th Book Is Out

By Gosh he's still got it! . . .that's at least what a review by Alexander Nurnberg had to say in a piece that appeared three days ago Agent Running in the Field by John le Carré review — he’s still got it The 87-year-old writer still thrills in this tale of Brexit and a badminton-loving spy
"The hero of John le Carré’s new novel is painfully aware that he is playing a young person’s game. Nat, a veteran officer of the Secret Intelligence Service, is also a long-standing member of his local badminton club — both activities that he knows are better suited to sprightly twentysomethings. But for now, though his age is starting to show, Nat has managed to remain the club champion.
The same could be said of le Carré, who, in an always crowded arena, continues to demonstrate prowess. Agent Running in the Field may not have quite the strength of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), but although a little stiff, perhaps even occasionally flat-footed, once le Carré has limbered up there is no… "
John le Carré strikes again...17 Oct
...a new story of modern espionage from the master chronicler of our age...
About Agent Running in the Field
“[Le Carré’s] novels are so brilliant because they’re emotionally and psychologically absolutely true, but of course they’re novels.” New York Times Book Review
A new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author John le Carré"Nat, a 47 year-old veteran of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, believes his years as an agent runner are over. He is back in London with his wife, the long-suffering Prue. But with the growing threat from Moscow Centre, the office has one more job for him. Nat is to take over The Haven, a defunct substation of London General with a rag-tag band of spies.
The only bright light on the team is young Florence, who has her eye on Russia Department and a Ukrainian oligarch with a finger in the Russia pie.
Nat is not only a spy, he is a passionate badminton player.
His regular Monday evening opponent is half his age: the introspective and solitary Ed. Ed hates Brexit, hates Trump and hates his job at some soulless media agency. And it is Ed, of all unlikely people, who will take Prue, Florence and Nat himself down the path of political anger that will ensnare them all.
Agent Running in the Field is a chilling portrait of our time, now heartbreaking, now darkly humorous, told to us with unflagging tension by the greatest chronicler of our age.

 

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A REAL-LIFE STORY STRANGER THAN FICTION
One more new book! From ART NEWS  yesterday 14 Oct 2019
C.I.A. Officer Says She Posed as Art Dealer While Undercover in Shanghai
"If you were involved in the art world in Shanghai in the early 2000s, there is a chance you interacted with an art dealer who was actually a C.I.A. agent.
In her upcoming memoir, Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the C.I.A.,” former spook Amaryllis Fox says that she posed as a dealer during the day while conducting intelligence operations at night. Fox left the left the agency in 2010, and now resides in Los Angeles. Her book, which details her life in— as she puts it as—“the most dangerous places the planet has to offer,” will be released by Random House on October 15.

Both Fox and her then-husband, who was also a C.I.A. officer, disguised themselves as members of the art industry during the period, Fox says in a profile from the New York Times. (The interview for the piece took place at Odeon, the Manhattan bistro that has long been an art-world standby, which is a nice touch.)
. . . The book, which the Times describes as if a “John le Carré character landed in Eat Pray Love, will eventually be turned into a TV series developed by Apple, with Captain Marvel Brie Larson in the main role. (A note: Fox says that some details have been changed to protect classified information, so we’re taking her word about all of this.)
Fox’s involvement with art apparently didn’t end when she left Langley, the Times notes.
She actually met her current husband, Robert F. Kennedy III, the son of Robert Kennedy Jr., at Burning Man. Only in America!
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A New Vision of a John le Carré Classic
Artwork Inspired by
'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'
 

This year, The Folio Society has released a new edition of le Carré’s classic, introduced by the author and illustrated by the artist Matt Taylor. The artwork in this new volume evokes a noir world slowly spilt over with grayish blues and flashes of startling color. Espionage-crazed readers that we are, we wanted to share some of these illustrations with you. Here, then, is an artist’s vision of le Carré’s bleak midcentury world, a new rendering of a classic story.

QOD: You can dig it