John Le Carré - Our Kind of Traitor

review by Malcolm on show 9th June
From the Cover

Britain is in the depths of recession. A left-leaning young Oxford academic and his barrister girlfriend take an off-peak holiday on the Caribbean island of Antigua. By seeming chance they bump into a Russian millionaire called Dima who owns a peninsula and a diamond-encrusted gold watch. He also has a tattoo on his right thumb, and wants a game of tennis.

What else he wants propels the young lovers on a tortuous journey through Paris to a safe house in the Swiss Alps, to the murkiest cloisters of the City of London and its unholy alliance with Britain's Intelligence Establishment.

My Review

The book cover gives little away about the nature of this charming novel. Peregrine Makepiece, Perry is a young disaffected Oxford tutor in English Literature His girlfriend, Gail, is a London Barrister working on the case of Samson vs Samson, I wonder where le Carré gets his names. They decide to take a break in Antigua and after a game of tennis at the resort tennis club they are approached by a clearly rich and body guarded Russian, Dmitri known as Dima who challenges Perry to a game – not knowing that he’s a member of Queens and an accomplished player. Perry accepts and the match takes place next day with Dima’s entire family coming to watch. Perry wins hands down, even letting the Russian get some easy points. But to Perry and Gail’s discomfort they are adopted by the whole family and asked to a party at Dima’s own compound.

During the course of the party Dima takes Perry out of earshot and informs him he has information for HM Government which he will exchange for a life in UK for him and his family. He is not a spy it transpires but a money launderer for a group of Russians he calls The Seven Brothers led by one known as the Prince. They are a ruthless group and Dima knows that as soon as his latest deal is finished he will be disposed of. Amongst other crooked enterprises they run Black Hotels – new resorts with no quests – but healthy accounts when they sell them on after a couple of years. They import tax free charity meat to Russia, sourcing condemned meat from Bulgaria and then providing an Italian certificate of prime beef and getting the best profit possible.

Perry and Gail finish their holiday and armed with a data cassette from Dima in Perry’s sponge bag they make contact with British intelligence and are hauled in to sign the official secrets act, Gail remarking to herself that Perry has not just signed but signed up.

British intelligence wade through loads of Dima’s data, most of which could have been made up, but then suddenly come across footage of a British politician at one of the money launderer’s lavish parties – appropriately a minister involved in banking ethics! Le Carré has some nice terms for the financiers – Vulture Capitalists he calls them!

Another meeting is set up to discuss arrangements to get Dima and his family back to UK – this time the meeting will be at the Paris open between Federer and Soderling with Perry and Gail as the contacts. It is decided that after Dima makes his last contract with the Seven Brothers in Bern he will be spirited away to the safety of the UK.

That is the gist of what I found, for Le Carré, a quite fast moving and very enjoyable novel. I particularly liked the last part where the family are hidden in a safe house near Wengen in the Swiss Alps, a protracted stay as it happens while British Intelligence ponder about who is going to sanction the procedure and will it affect the UK banking system if news of such financial corruption gets out. Le Carré, like me, a graduate of Bern, shows off his knowledge of Switzerland’s inhabitants and affectionately pokes fun at their ways. I particularly liked a scene when they are trying to smuggle international criminal Demi to an airport using a forest track in their 4x4 and they are stopped by Swiss police because they are not displaying the appropriate windscreen vignette for that route.

Great stuff, heartily recommended.

MFMartland Broadcast on Radio Scilly 9 June 2011