Summary of John le Carré's The Pigeon Tunnel

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 The British Secret Service has been accused of being heartless and incompetent many times over the years. The phrase unhappily, East Germany had been part of my accuser’s parish in the days when we had worked together goes through my mind.

#2 The lunch with Oldfield did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. Over the hors d’oeuvres, Oldfield extolled the ethical standards of his old Service, and implied that young David had besmirched its good name.

#3 The British have had a long-standing love-hate relationship with their spies. They want the image, but they don’t want to put up with negative reviews or derision.

#4 The British spy system is the envy of every spook in the free and unfree world. No good pointing out that many approved memoirs of former members depict the Service in the clothes in which it likes to be admired.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669366690

IRB Media

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Insights on John Le Carré's The Pigeon Tunnel

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 16

Insights from Chapter 17

Insights from Chapter 18

Insights from Chapter 19

Insights from Chapter 20

Insights from Chapter 21

Insights from Chapter 22

Insights from Chapter 23

Insights from Chapter 24

Insights from Chapter 25

Insights from Chapter 26

Insights from Chapter 27

Insights from Chapter 28

Insights from Chapter 29

Insights from Chapter 30

Insights from Chapter 31

Insights from Chapter 32

Insights from Chapter 33

Insights from Chapter 34

Insights from Chapter 35

Insights from Chapter 36

Insights from Chapter 37

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The British Secret Service has been accused of being heartless and incompetent many times over the years. The phrase unhappily, East Germany had been part of my accuser’s parish in the days when we had worked together goes through my mind.

#2

The lunch with Oldfield did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. Over the hors d’oeuvres, Oldfield extolled the ethical standards of his old Service, and implied that young David had besmirched its good name.

#3

The British have had a long-standing love-hate relationship with their spies. They want the image, but they don’t want to put up with negative reviews or derision.

#4

The British spy system is the envy of every spook in the free and unfree world. No good pointing out that many approved memoirs of former members depict the Service in the clothes in which it likes to be admired.

#5

The atmosphere of mistrust that existed between the British government and its employees in the 1950s and 1960s was felt by all sides. The upper echelons of the Service were made up of aging survivors of the glory days of 1939 to 1945, while the middle order consisted of former colonial police and district officers left over from Britain’s dwindling empire.

#6

I had completed the MI6 initiation course, which equipped me with skills I never needed and quickly forgot. Two years after receiving the unsettling news of George Blake’s treachery, I was serving as a Second Secretary at the British Embassy in Bonn.