The Secret Pilgrim

infobox Book |
name = The Secret Pilgrim
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = First edition cover
author = John le Carré
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series = George Smiley
genre = Spy Novel
publisher = Alfred A. Knopf (USA) & Hodder & Stoughton (UK)
release_date = January 1990
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 335 pp (first edition, hardback)
isbn = ISBN 0-394-58842-8 (first edition, hardback)
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Secret Pilgrim" is the 1990 novel, set within the frame narrative of a series of lectures by John le Carré's George Smiley, famous only within the 'Circus'. The memoirs, narrated by Ned, a former pupil of Smiley's, are, except for the last, triggered by tangential Smiley comments in lectures given at Sarratt, the spy-training college which Ned runs. However, they are primarily accounts of Ned's own experiences rather than of Smiley's. Ned, who does not give his surname, represents himself as the head of the Russia House in The Russia House, disgraced by the defection of Barley Blair and hence condemned to a semi-retirement in charge of Sarrat.

Plot introduction

During the book, Ned revels silently in his memories of the quiet-spoken George Smiley as Smiley imparts his wisdom to a class of newly recruited students at MI6 pausing only, to the secret delight of all present, to polish his spectacles on the fat end of his tie.

The book begins with a surprise acceptance by Smiley of an invitation from Ned to speak at Sarrat. The Smiley sections of the book are quite brief, and the Ned narratives usually begins when he believes he can decrypt tangential comments made by Smiley and illuminate them from his own experiences. At the end of the penultimate chapter, Smiley instructs them not to invite him again. The final chapter represents a Ned memoir unconnected with Smiley.

The theme of the book is the moral ambiguity of spying, which forms the basis of Smiley's lectures, and also Ned's description of his own growing self-awareness.

Blurb

The Berlin Wall is toppled, the Iron Curtain swept aside. The Secret Pilgrim is Ned, a decent, loyal soldier of the Cold War, and who has been in British Intelligence all his adult life. Now, approaching the end of his career, he is forced by the explosions of change to revisit his secret years. He illuminates the brave past and even braver present of George Smiley, his hero and mentor, who gives back to him the dangerous edge of memory that empowers him finally to frame the questions that have haunted him - and the world - for thirty years...