Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief

Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief

In the mid-1970s, while travelling on the slowest train in the world from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi, I recall reading a substantial chunk of John Le Carre's espionage novel, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Though not a fast-paced book, it still had more momentum than the wretched train.

The sad news of Le Carre's death last weekend at the age of 89, had me thinking a bit more about that particular book. I have to admit I did not fully understand all of the complexities of the intricate plot and sometimes had to reread bits to work out who was who.

But I became totally absorbed in this dark, secretive world and its cryptic jargon centred on The Circus, with ferrets, babysitters, cousins, mothers, lamplighters, reptile funds, honey traps and of course the mole. Even the names of the chief characters were intriguing -- George Smiley, Toby Esterhase, Percy Alleline (codename Merlin).

A few years later the BBC produced a compelling TV mini-series starring Sir Alec Guinness who was masterful as always. Guinness played Smiley's role with classic understatement and created the perfect mood. It was just as if the character had walked out of the book and onto the screen.

Fast forward to January 2012 and I was sitting in the Scala theatre at Siam Square watching a new version of Tinker, featuring an impressive cast with Gary Oldman a convincing Smiley, and a strong supporting cast including John Hurt, Tom Hardy and Colin Firth.

It is not a film for people who demand action and blissfully there are no car chases. The murky world of espionage was filmed in equally murky lighting in an unappealing London consumed by shadows. The life of these Cold War spies could not be further from the flashy James Bond image.

Wonderful though the film was, I still couldn't understand it all. Maybe I should read the book again.

The Thai spy

The Guinness version of Tinker was shown on Thai television in the 1980s in pre-cable days when we only had access to four Thai TV stations. For the Tinker series we were left at the mercy of the Channel 3 sound engineer, hoping he didn't nod off and forget to switch on the English soundtrack.

I remember throwing a wobbler while viewing one day. The series was approaching the vital moment when Guinness was about to expose the mole. As the tension mounted, with an extraordinary sense of timing, the official Radio Thailand news, which for some reason was obligatory for all channels to carry in those days, thundered in with its familiar marching music, hijacking the English soundtrack. So from being glued to a spy thriller, we were suddenly treated to gripping reports on the latest tapioca prices and a meeting of third-grade officials in Nakhon Nowhere.

Making things even more infuriating was that the dubbed Thai-language soundtrack for Tinker was unaffected, so we had to put up with Smiley saying things like "sawasdee krap" and "Oh ho!" which somehow didn't quite carry the authority one came to expect from Guinness.

Oriental inspiration

Le Carre ventured to Thailand on several occasions and like many famous authors usually stayed at the Oriental Hotel, now the Mandarin Oriental. He is believed to have completed The Honourable Schoolboy while staying at the hotel.

For anyone who hasn't read Le Carre novels, he is well worth a try. The first one I tackled was The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and I was hooked. No more Ian Fleming and that 007 stuff. However, the Le Carre books demanded commitment and patience, something I didn't always possess. Admittedly a lot of the novels are set in the Cold War, although you could argue that not much has changed in that respect, certainly regarding Russia.

Season's bleatings

Normally at this stage of the calendar PostScript has a distinctly festive flavour, welcoming in the season of silly hats and hangovers, but frankly this year there's an absence of anything to be remotely festive about.

In Thailand there have been brave attempts to look on the bright side. The malls, department stores and supermarkets have been doing their best to put on a happy face and encourage us to get in a "Jinger Ben" mood. Salesgirls are donning Santa hats, rabbit ears and reindeer antlers and you can only sympathise with them having to put up with interminable mediocre versions of Christmas songs.

I wandered through a deserted toy section the other day and the Barbie dolls perched on the shelf looked quite lonely, or maybe they were unhappy being placed adjacent to some sorry-looking plastic dinosaurs.

Nakhon Nowhere

If you find the aforementioned Le Carre books a bit too complex for your taste, you can always go down-market -- OK, very down-market -- and purchase a copy of the Crutch book, The Long Winding Road to Nakhon Nowhere. Available at AsiaBooks, it concerns my early days in Thailand working at the Bangkok Post. I'm afraid there aren't any spies in it, and despite the title it is not that long, but perhaps a bit winding in parts. So if you are desperately hunting for a last-minute Christmas or New Year present for people you don't particularly like, there's your answer. And if you really don't like them, buy them two copies.

Happy Christmas everybody.


Contact PostScript via email at oldcrutch@hotmail.com

Roger Crutchley

Bangkok Post columnist

A long time popular Bangkok Post columnist. In 1994 he won the Ayumongkol Literary Award. For many years he was Sports Editor at the Bangkok Post.

Email : oldcrutch@gmail.com

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