![]() ![]() His own father, famously, had been a confidence trickster, and le Carré was therefore all too well equipped to mount a lifelong investigation into the uses of roguery, not to mention sleights of hand, some of them amounting to a national disgrace. The passage is taken from “ The Spy Who Came In from the Cold,” le Carré’s first triumph, published in 1963, and it illustrates his abiding themes. He must protect himself not only from without, but from within, and against the most natural of impulses though he earn a fortune, his role may forbid him the purchase of a razor. For him, deception is first a matter of self-defense. But while a confidence trickster, a play-actor, or a gambler can return from his performance to the ranks of his admirers, the secret agent enjoys no such relief. In itself the practice of deception is not particularly exacting it is a matter of experience, of professional expertise, it is a facility most of us can acquire. ![]()
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