The Berlin Wall is toppled, the Iron Curtain swept aside. The Secret Pilgrim is Ned, a decent, loyal soldier of the Cold War, who has been in British Intelligence - the Circus - all his adult life. Now, approaching the end of his career, he is forced by the explosions of change to revisit his secret years.
Ned illuminates the brave past and even braver present of George Smiley, his hero and mentor, who gives back to him the dangerous edge of memory that cuts through Ned's self-delusion and empowers him finally to frame the questions that have haunted him - and the world - for thirty years . . .
