Calico Black, Calico Blue

Last night I listened to most of the CD of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold based on the 1963 John le Carre novel. Set in the early 1960s at the height of the Cold War, the story focuses on Alec Leamas (played Brian Cox), a burnt out British spy working in Communist East Germany, who returns to England in disgrace after his network is uncovered and wiped out by a ruthless enemy spymaster. Wanting nothing more than to "come in from the cold" (leave the world of espionage), Leamas is nevertheless offered one chance to redeem himself and get revenge: become the bait in a trap set against one of the most dangerous and cunning enemy spymasters. However Leamas soon discovers that the operation is much more complex than he could have guessed. The book was written by John le Carre (who was himself a British spy working undercover in East Germany for many years in the fifties and sixties, until he was forced to escape when he was named to the East German authorities along with many other British spies by a double agent) in part as a riposte to the James Bond novels which featured a very glamorous and action-packed view of the spy world which le Carre considered completely unrealistic: In his novels the spying world is bleak, ambiguous and cruel and the spies are neither heroic or glamorous.

I also read a couple more horror short stories: In the first one, "Calico Black, Calico Blue" by Joel Knight, a London businessman finds a doll outside his flat door and returns it to the owner, who thanks him by inviting him to her flat for a drink. However he soon discovers that he has walked into a horrific trap. In the second story, "This Rich, Evil Sound" by Steven Erickson, a lonely man is driven insane during a cold winter in the Canadian wilderness.

This morning I went along to Ocean Terminal with my Dad. We stopped at Starbucks for a coffee and a muffin, before splitting up. I bought some things in a "three for two" offer: A CD of the radio adaptation of A Murder of Quality based on the John le Carre novel and the books The Way Home by Geroge Pelecanos and Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (which was made into a film recently by Martin Scorsese). We went back to my parents house for lunch, and in the afternoon had a walk with my Mum, which was nice.