The Honourable Schoolboy

The Honourable Schoolboy is a 1977 spy novel by the English author John le Carré. It follows the spymaster George Smiley and his agents as they attempt to carry out a successful offensive espionage operation in Southeast Asia while rebuilding the Circus following the events of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

The Honourable Schoolboy was followed by Smiley's People, which together with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, make up the "Karla Trilogy". All three novels were later published as an omnibus edition titled Smiley Versus Karla or The Quest for Karla in 1982.

Plot

In 1974 George Smiley, the chief of the British secret intelligence service referred to as The Circus, is repairing the damage done to their operations by double agent Bill Haydon and looking for opportunities to target Karla, the Moscow Centre spymaster. The Circus is operating in a minimal way with most of its overseas facilities closed, its agents withdrawn and its operations under close political supervision. Smiley and analysts Connie Sachs and Doc di Salis look into investigations suppressed by Haydon and find that a historic investigation by Sam Collins of a money laundering operation in Laos could indicate a Moscow intelligence operation.

Through code and contacts already in Southeast Asia, Smiley dispatches Jerry Westerby, a newspaper reporter now living in Tuscany and occasional Circus operative, to Hong Kong under the guise of a sports journalist. Westerby traces the Soviet money to Drake Ko, a local businessman with links to both the criminal underworld and the British establishment. London establishes that Drake has a brother, Nelson, who is a high-ranking Chinese official and who has been spying on the Chinese for the Soviets.