To celebrate the fact that Lloyd and I are allowed to meet in the open air, we took to our bikes and took a trip across London in search of locations associated with Le Carré’s classic spy novel ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’.

It was a lovely sunny day for a bike ride and it was exhilarating to be out on the town with a pal. And it turns out that this book is satisfyingly (and curiously) specific about dates and locations.

Track down Smiley's Circus in 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy': S1 Ep15 – The Curiously Specific Book Club

Lloyd and Tim take on the 'holy scripture' of spy novels, John Le Carré's classic tale of 1970s Cold War intrigue and betrayal; the book that established George Smiley as one of the all-time great fictional characters – 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'. Our mission at the 'CuSpec' Book Club is to road test works of fiction that appear to be curiously specific about dates and locations. We go to the places mentioned and see if descriptions are accurate, journey times credible, dates and days all in order. Along the way, we learn things about the book and its author. For early access to ad-free episodes – and exclusive access to all our show notes, maps, photos and videos – please support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/curiouslyspecific. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lloyd and Tim take on the ‘holy scripture’ of spy novels, John Le Carré’s classic tale of 1970s Cold War intrigue and betrayal; the book that established George Smiley as one of the all-time great fictional characters – ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy‘.

The adventure starts on home turf: Smiley’s home, to be precise, on Bywater Street in Chelsea. From there, we cycled off to Sussex Gardens.

The Hotel Islay in Sussex Gardens – where, on the day after his visit to Ascot, George Smiley under the name of Barraclough had set up his operational headquarters – was a very quiet place considering its position, and perfectly suited to his needs. It lay a hundred yards south of Paddington Station, one of a terrace of elderly mansions cut off from the main avenue by a line of plane trees and a parking patch.

We very much liked the look of one particular hotel on this stretch – the Castleton. From there it was off to Lexham Gardens in search of the safe house where Smiley and Guillam interrogate Toby Esterhase, and following our re-enactment of a simple tracking operation down Marloes Road, it becomes clear to us that this is very likely to be the most curiously specific book we have encountered so far concerning dates and locations.

Go to https://curiouslyspecific.com/ for the full report.