What can I say about Karla and Karla’s Choice? I posted recently about having read John Le Carre’s George Smiley series in the correct  order. I have just reread Karla’s Choice, having read it in the summer. Now it makes much more sense. It is written by Nick Harkaway, the pen name of Nicholas Cornwell, the son of David Cornwell whose pen name was John Le Carré.

Karla is the codename of the Head of Moscow Centre, Russia’s KGB just as the Circus is MI5 / MI6. Karla’s Choise slots into the space between The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It is quite clear that Nick inherited every ounce of his father’s writing talent. Was there a gap which needed filling? Having read the series in sequence, it wasn’t obvious that there was. There was a temporal space, but not necessarily a plot one. However Karla’s Choice is a magnificent George Smiley book in its own right. It added greatly to my understanding of many of the key characters, in particular, George, his wayward wife Ann, and Karla.

Karla otherwise first appeared in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and meets his end in Smiley’s People. I think Karla’s Choice helps enormously to flesh our arch-villain, Karla, out a bit.