The Russia House

Last night I finished reading The Russia House by John le Carre. The book was first published in 1989 and tells the story of Scott "Barley" Blair, an obscure British publisher, who is sent a couple of notebooks smuggled out of Moscow, which contain vital secrets about Soviet defence capabilities. The British Secret Service, who intercept the notebooks, need to find out whether the information is genuine and whether the author is genuine, a plant or a madman. The dishevelled, womanising, wise-cracking, jazz-loving, alcoholic Blair is far from the ideal spy but the Secret Service, reluctantly, decide to use him to travel to Moscow and contact the woman, Katya, who smuggled the notebooks. However, the spymasters don't plan on the pair falling in love. John le Carre, who was a British spy himself for many years, has made a career writing espionage thrillers which concnetrate far more on character than on action. The Russia House is certainly well-written with interesting and well-developed characters, and also a strong vein of humour. It is very much a product of it's time, the closing years of the Cold War. It was turned into a film in 1990 with Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer.

This morning Dad came to collect me and we went along to the Ocean Terminal shopping centre. We had a cheese scone and mocha coffee for breakfast. Then we split up. I bought the book Public Enemies by Bryan Burrough. It's a non-fiction book about the American gangsters and bank-robbers of the 1930s and the rise of the FBI. The recent film Public Enemies was based on the book. I know I should be saving, but I've been doing pretty well actually. Aside from this weekend, I've not bought any books or DVDs or video games for well over a month, and the books I bought this weekend were all on sale.

When we got to my parents house we had some chicken salad and boiled potatoes, followed by a strawberry tart and some home-made raspberry ice-cream, which was really nice. After discussing matters with my parents I have come up with a date to move to Canada. I plan to go over there on 10 March 2010. My Mum advised me to go along during the Spring because it would be easier to acclimatise to the weather before it got too cold. Also it provides time to get thing sorted out and arranged. I thought March would be the best time. The actual date was just one that I came up with. It makes it easier when I can think of an actual date set. It seems like a long time away, but it's really only eight months, and there is an awful lot to do. Then again you can't rush these things, and the time will soon pass.