One of London's meek...

..who do not inherit the earth. Thus is described Mr George Smiley!

I enjoyed particularly John le Carre's early exploration of the secret world - and this must be one of the best spy stories ever written. Mind you, the sequel - The Honourable Schoolboy - is pretty hot stuff too. I first read it in Hong Kong which gave it even more of piquancy.

And who can forget the 1979 version on television with Alec Guinness? I have the DVD! The opening credits feature a matryoshka doll progressively revealing a doll more irate than the previous, with the final doll being faceless, an allusion to Winston Churchill's describing Russia as "A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma". The closing credits music, an arrangement of Nunc dimittis ("Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace"), was composed by Geoffrey Burgon for organ, trumpet and treble; the score earned the Ivor Novello Award for 1979.

My dilemma - will I be able to watch the 2011 cinema version without getting agitated by comparisons?