John Le Carré

 I find these covers evocative of the era and very much in keeping with the overall atmosphere within the pages.

'When Lady Ann Sercomb married George Smiley towards the end of the war she described him to her astonished Mayfair friends as breathtakingly ordinary. When she left him two years later in favour of a Cuban motor racing driver, she announced that if she hadn't left him then, she never could have done; and Viscount Sawley made a special journey to his club to observe that the cat was out of the bag.'

'The greatness of Crane School has been ascribed by common consent to Edward V1, whose educational zeal is ascribed by history to the Duke of Somerset. But Carne prefers the respectability of the monarch to the questionable politics of his adviser, drawing strength from the conviction that Great Schools, like Tudor Kings, were ordained in Heaven.'

These two July Snippets were from John Le Carré's first novels.

The first is from 'Call For The Dead' and the second from 'A Murder of Quality'

Interestingly, these first two books, introducing his character Smiley, were written by John Le Carré as a means of supplementing his income. They were followed by 'The Spy Who Came In From The Cold'. Reading these two books one can see the development of his skill. The second sits more easily, in my opinion.

He says of 'A Murder of Quality':  ' .... I wrote the book lying down, on beds, in notebooks, in the few snatched hours that were left to me by my family and diplomatic life.'

I enjoy discovering how writers begin their writing career as I can identify with a writer writing, wherever and in whatever mode. How much in life must have begun on scraps of paper and on the backs of packets, or as a scribble on a serviette. The same can often be said of sketches in preparation for the creation of a major work of art ... and no doubt music scores have come from similar lowly beginnings. Incredible .... and it gives hope to each of us who inspires to create.