"Two seemingly unconnected events heralded the summons of Mr. George Smiley from his dubious retirement. The first had…"

"The second of the two events that brought George Smiley from his retirement occurred a few weeks after the first, in …"

"The two men had been together for fifteen minutes but this was the Superintendent's first question. For a while Smile…"

""Thank you," said Smiley again. And a moment later, with more ease than his portly figure might have suggested him ca…"

""The best I ever met," old Mendel, the Superintendent's one-time superior, had told him over a friendly pint not long…"

"There was another thing about that face the Superintendent wouldn't easily forget either. Later, he talked to old Men…"

"But Lacon was talking, not listening: "How's Ann?" he asked vaguely, at the window, stretching his forearms on the si…"

""Oliver, I wonder if you'd mind finally telling me what I'm doing here," Smiley heard himself suggesting for the thir…"

"The drawing-pin was where Mostyn said it was, at head height exactly, in the best Sarratt tradition of regularity, it…"

"The Superintendent called softly to the trees, where his men stood among their blacked-out cars like a next generatio…"