George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess ‘the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin’. It is 1962: the height of the Cold War and only months after the building of the Berlin Wall. Alec Leamas is a hard-working, hard-drinking British intelligence officer whose East Berlin network is in tatters. His agents are either...

It has been 70 years since the ‘Iron Curtain’ was drawn around the Western-occupied sectors of Berlin by the Soviet Union.Having occupied Berlin three years earlier, Russian forces managed to enforce a blockade on the city in June 1948, preventing the Western Allies access by road, rail or canal. Effectively condemning the people of Berlin to starve, Russia refused to lift the blockade until the Deutsche Mark was withdrawn from West Berlin.Forced to find an...

Public policy is made of language. Whether in written or oral form, argument is central to all parts of the policy process. As simple as this insight appears, its implications for policy analysis and planning are profound. Drawing from recent work on language and argumentation and referring to such theorists as Wittgenstein, Habermas, Toulmin, and Foucault, these essays explore the interplay of language, action, and power in both the practice and the theory of policy-making.The cont...

Early in 2020, naturist fiction author P. Z. Walker had the idea for a collection of mystery stories to be called "Murder in the Nudist Colony," deliberately using the antiquated term "nudist colony" for a slightly retro, humorous touch. On social media platforms, mostly Twitter, other folks associated with the fine network of naturist authors chimed in. Ted Bun put together the call for submissions, Robert Longpré set up the page to share documents as well as the ISBN, Fabien Barabé desig...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of A Legacy of Spies by John le Carré, read by Tom Hollander.Chosen as a Book of the Year in The Times Literary Supplement, the Evening Standard, the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, The Times'A brilliant novel of deception, love and trust to join his supreme cannon' Evening Standard'Vintage le Carré. Immensel...

**Brought to you by PenguinNow a major TV series directed by Brian Kirk and starring Eddie Redmayne!**One of the most celebrated thrillers ever written, The Day of the Jackal is the exhilarating story of the struggle to catch a killer before it's too late.An anonymous Englishman is hired by the Operations Chief of French terrorist organisation O.A.S. to murder the French president, General Charles de Gaulle. A failed atte...

Winner of the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller of the Year. Selected by Sunday Times Books of the Year and The Guardian as Best Thriller of the Year.Perfect for fans of John le Carré, a gripping and suspenseful spy thriller from ‘the master of the modern spy thriller’ (Mail on Sunday)Six weeks before she is due to take up her position as the first female head of MI6, Amelia Levene vanishes without a trace.Her...

**Don't miss the gripping new espionage thriller by Charles Cumming, KENNEDY 35! Pre-order the paperback now**Perfect for fans of John le Carré, a gripping and suspenseful spy thriller from ‘the master of the modern spy thriller’ (Mail on Sunday)Hard-up Russia expert Dr Sam Gaddis finally has a lead for the book that could solve all his career problems. But the story of a lifetime becomes an obsession that could kill him.When his source is found dea...

**IN THE HUNT FOR A SPY, HE EXPOSED A CONSPIRACY'Seriously riveting . . . a testament to Robert Harris's storytelling power' The Times'Taut and exciting' Guardian**Paris, 1895: an army officer, Georges Picquart, watches a convicted spy, Alfred Dreyfus, being publicly humiliated in front of a baying crowd.Dreyfus is exiled for life to Devil's Island; Picquart is promoted to run the intelligence until that tracked him down.But when Pi...

Fast-talking, trouble-seeking private eye Philip Marlowe is a different kind of detective: a moral man in an amoral world. California in the ’40s and ’50s is as beautiful as a ripe fruit and rotten to the core, and Marlowe must struggle to retain his integrity amidst the corruption he encounters daily. The Big Sleep finds the world-weary, wisecracking investigator consulted by a wealthy family man with two big problems: his children. Carmen Sternwood has got herself mixed up with ...

Richard Hannay, Buchan’s hero in this classic 1915 thriller, stumbles across a terrorist plot to destabilize Europe. A British spy in the mold of James Bond, Hannay is an action man with a polished veneer. After a series of murders, Hannay takes up the cause when he has to go on the run. An action-packed series of events come to an exciting conclusion.

And in Edinburgh of all places. I mean, you never think of that sort of thing happening in Edinburgh, do you... ''That sort of thing' is the brutal abduction and murder of two young girls. And now a third is missing, presumably gone to the same sad end. Detective Sergeant John Rebus, smoking and drinking too much, his own young daughter spirited away south by his disenchanted wife, is one of many policemen hunting the killer.And then the messages begin to arrive: knotted st...