Smiley's People

Smiley's People is a spy novel by John le Carré, first published in 1979 by Random House (ISBN 0394508432). It is the last of the Karla Trilogy featuring British master-spy George Smiley following Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy.

In this book, Smiley is brought out of retirement a final time to investigate the death of an old British agent, a Russian General living in anonymous retirement in London. Smiley finds that the General had discovered information that would lead him to a final confrontation with Smiley's 'Black Grail', the Soviet spy-master Karla.

The novel was dramatised by John Hopkins as a highly-acclaimed mini-series for the BBC in 1982 as a sequel to Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Spy, again starring Alec Guinness as Smiley.

See also

Smiley's people, an article by Neal Stephenson that has a title similar to the novel's title.