Le Carré and Smiley (1)

I have been fascinated and enthralled by the world of Intelligence, homeland and foreign, factual and fictional since first becoming the subject of investigation in 1960 and 1961 but have so far resisted the temptation to seek access to my file under Freedom of Information now that 50 years has passed by. I went full circle signing the Official Secrets Act in the mid 1980’s and being briefed when undertaking work under secondment for the Department of Health.

I have always had a soft spot for the Home Office whose Cabinet Minister commands Homeland security in association with Number 10 and the Ministry of Defence and one of the great joys and sense of achievement was to be allocated a car parking space at the former building at Green Park when visiting as a member of a national sub committee. It was the Home Office that fixed my child care place and provided the funds and where one of its regional officers took me out to lunch and advised on the best approach if I wanted to become a local authority chief officer, although in fairness I do not think telling Sir Keith Joseph where I stood politically in terms of national commitments and international politics when he was my dinner guest at the first BASW national family and child care conference did any harm when it came to confirming my appointment as a Director of Social Services three years later.

(The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 (Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of the intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6), Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS). All come under the direction of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC). The service has a statutory basis in the Security Service Act 1989 and the Intelligence Services Act 1994. Its remit includes the protection of British parliamentary democracy and economic interests, counter-terrorism and counter-espionage within the UK. Although mainly concerned with internal security, it does have an overseas role in support of its mission. Conversely, to ensure that the Home Secretary is responsible for intelligence operations within the UK, the Service may act on behalf of SIS and GCHQ even if the operation is outside its own functions (SIS and GCHQ report to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs) ref Wikipedia.

The headquarters of the services has been at Millbank on the North side of the Thames and became familiar to me on my lunch time walks along the bank of the Thames when on leaving school at sixteen I became a junior clerk at the seven story office building of Middlesex County Council now occupied by Random House Publishers at Vauxhall Bridge and within metres of the iconic purpose designed building of the British Secret Intelligence Service, more commonly known as M16 situated on the Southside of the Thames across the Bridge.

My fascination and therefore knowledge has been restricted to fiction writing, films and television and this piece is sparked by seeing the film Tinker Tailor and not agreeing with the rave notices and predictions of awards. I decided to re read the novel and see the film again later in the morning after listening to the Mark Kermode appraisal on the BBC 5 live pod cast yesterday evening and recommendation that to appreciate its value a second visit is worthwhile. I agree there are several excellent performances but I know where the film fails, for me, that is, I am not emotionally engaged. In part because of familiarity but the film fails to make me care.

I can still watch the film of the Le Carré book which brought him success, The Spy who came in from the Cold and still be as moved as I was when I saw the film in theatre and understood the decision of Richard Burton as Lomas not to walk away from his girl friend of a short while, knowing that she was already dead at his feet. I saw the film again about a year ago and yesterday. I still enjoy seeing the Tailor of Panama another Le Carré film which was inspired by another master writer of the intelligence world Graham Green’s Our Man in Havana and where I have ten of his works. Michael Caine also continues to engage with the Ipcress file, Funeral in Berlin and the Million Dollar Brian, Bullet to Beijing and Midnight in St Petersburg, all films and more recently the BBC production with Bill Nighy in Page Eight (recently reviewed). There is also Callan with Edward Woodward.

My other moan is that the film is shot in 1940’s and 1950’s Brown although my memory is that there was as much green as brown with my main point being that Le Carré set the trilogy in the 1970’s.

I have six John Le Carré novels including the three Karla works, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smile’s People with the first and last made into brilliant TV series with Sir Alec Guiness and Smiley and a radio production of the Honourable Schoolboy because the cost of TV series shot in the Far East was considered too great. There are eight works involving Smiley and in 2009/10 the BBC created new plays and serials featuring all 8 of his works and where the series is available on CD’s as a package around £65 from the original cost of £100.

I also have the Russia House, The Constant Gardiner and Mission Song. I have video tapes of the two great BBC TV series which featured Sir Alec Guiness in the role of George Smiley, Tinker Tailor and Smile’s people. I have found the TV Tape of Smile’s people but not that of Tinker Tailor.
I have always liked George Smiley although he has a very different personality to my own. George is old school in every sense, public school and Oxford but not from one those grand schools or colleges which turn out individuals who seek to become Presidents of the Union, enter the House and do a spell as Prime Minister, become a leading Judge, run a City Bank or major international corporation. We do not know anything about the relationship with his parents, except they were middle class from the South of England and therefore if his personality and approach to life followed them or was in reaction to one or both of them.

George likes to be in the background, methodical and with an academic insistence on establishing facts and proofs. He is not without ambition and the psychological management profiling he comes out as a traditional chairman, sitting back listening, overseeing, reflecting and then calmly announcing what is to be done and why. He has one obvious weakness, his wife Anne and in which instance he reminds of C P Snow’s Lewis Elliot in his sequence of novels, of which I have nine, featuring academic life in Oxford and work for the Government in the time of War. Smiley would have done well as the Master of an Oxford College or as a senior Don doing interesting jobs for the Government.

Smiley and Lewis Elliot bear their wives as if a cross with Smile’s wife, inexplicably in someone ways, standing out, beautiful, high maintenance she would be described these days and prone to great sexual passions but returning to George for comfort when these go awry. Her full name is Lady Ann Sercombe, aristocratic and confident working as a secretary with the Circus which she decided that George would provide her with the security she needed from which to enjoy her libido. With more self control she would have become a femme fatale Mata Hari field agent or Scalphunter used by Le Carré for his special agents.
There are only a dozen of these based at a former school in Brixton. They work alone, are trained to try and survive interrogation and will what is required to complete he task they are set whatever their personal misgivings.

We know that George was recruited to MI6 by his tutor in the later 1920’s although given his personality I speculate he would have been more comfortable with the separate homeland security people, the guardians of the guardians for the Home Secretary and Number 10.

In the days of Smiley, Graham Green and Ian Fleming the location and identities of the Service was kept confidential although the London HQ was not at Cambridge Circus as in the Le Carré work hence the references to the Circus. I imagine those now working at today’s actual location will refer to the Cross, the Bridge or the Centre just as the chief was known as the Controller. Although as with MI5 the name of the chief is published these days. The Service is officially under the control of the Foreign Secretary with agents of all countries rationally placed in Embassy’s because Diplomatic privileges including immunity. There will be someone with appropriate clearance working at the Cabinet Office acting as a bridge between all the pasts of the security and intelligence services and the PM as well as Individual Ministers with the need to know.

There 3200 individuals listed as employees of MI5 but as with all aspects of MI5 work, such information will only be disclosed to those with the highest security clearances, possibly not even the Parliamentary Security Committee. Le Carré has 600 agents recruit from within the countries where they operate with 120 in Russia which suggests that pro rata he should have assumed several times more operating within the UK and her territories although much of the rest of the world misguidedly believes that the power of the UK is overrated, although not by the Chinese who according to a published quote from my local Member of Parliament when Foreign Secretary they are impressed by our ability to punch above our weight.

We know that George learned his job working South America and central Europe and that his knowledge of German led him to establishing networks in the country before the declaration of the War posing as a lecturer and also working in Switzerland and Sweden described by his superiors as having the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin.

In 1943, he was recalled to England to work at MI6 headquarters, and married Anne after the war when because of the problem which followed he left the service but was recalled with the establishment of the Cold War with the Soviets. In the 1950’s his job was counter intelligence which included trying to turn individuals working for the enemy and it was then that he met Karla his Russian nemesis who took his lighter, a gift from Anne to prove his machismo but also out of respect.

According to Wikipedia Smiley first appears in a Call for the Dead, le Carré's debut novel. At the start of the novel, set around 1960, Smiley has fallen from grace and is working in a relatively menial intelligence job, including security-clearing civil servants. He spends much of the story bemoaning the loss of the talented agents who were his mentors and their replacement by talentless civil-service bureaucrats, such as the current head of service, Maston, who refers to himself as the "Minister's Advisor for Intelligence" and is widely, if secretly, mocked. During this book, Smiley retires to unravel an East German spy ring but remains retired and investigates a murder at a fictional public school in le Carré's next novel, A Murder of Quality.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, his third novel, propelled le Carré to international renown. Smiley is a minor character in the story, but a pivotal one. He is supposedly still retired but is revealed during the story to be back in the Circus as one of the top aides to "Control". The book is set against the background of the Berlin Wall It is book which also introduced Peter Guillam as loyal to Control and to Smiley in a plot which results in the head of East German Intelligence being dethroned by his deputy, a double agent, with the help of Lomas.

Smiley is said to have only a brief involvement in the Looking Glass War, a work I know little about.

He then becomes the right hand man of Control incurring the resentment of the ambitious Percy Alleline and his main support the ‘playboy’ Bill Haydon both with a similar background to Control and Smiley, with Brand having been in the field in the Soviets because of his Community working class father, but who had nevertheless got to Grammar school and Oxford from where Smiley had recruited him. Finally there is Easterhase, again recruited by Smiley working in a Museum in central Europe with the kind of loyalty that serves the masters who ever they are, right or left. This is the situation in which the Karla trilogy begins with Tinker Tailor.

The book and the latest film, and from memory the TV series all cover the same basic plot with variations and different approaches.

It all begins in 1972 when Jim Prideaux a Scalphunter (licence to kill) is sent on a secret mission into a Soviet controlled territory, in the book to Czechoslovakia (Checko) and in the film to Budapest- Hungary, where a general wants to defect. It is however a trap arranged by the Spymaster Karla to kidnap the field agent to try and established if anything is known about his double agent at the top of the Circus and to finish the position of Control and replace him by someone more easily manipulated. Jim was recruited from Oxford by Bill Haydon because his childhood had been central European and his capacity to speak several of the languages. He was sent by Control on the understanding that he did not mention the mission to anyone else at the Centre. The asylum seeking contact offered military and political information and more significantly, the name of the traitor within the inner circle of Control- codename Merlin.

In the book and the film Jim is shot twice but the circumstances are very different and in this respect the film does well. The evidence is that his visit was anticipated. He is held and interrogated over several months but then repatriated. Smiley had been unaware of the mission and learned only what had happened after returning home and then going to the Centre. However because of the closeness to Control and the threat he poses to Merlin, he is forced out with Control.

On his return to England Toby Easterhase gives Prideaux an immediate £1000 until his official pension came through and told him to become a Lotus Easter. He joins a minor public school with a caravan drawn by an Alvis car also given to him as parting gift on behalf of the Circus. What happened to him and why is crucial to plot and in several ways this is in fact the story of him and also Ricki Tarr.

Ricki Tarr is also a Scalphunter sent to Turkey on a mission to bring back the head of trade mission but quickly determines that this is not a prospect but his emotional and vulnerable wife is, especially after Ricki beds her. Again there are different accounts between book and film and in the order of the revelations. She also says she has information which will affect the future of the Circus which Ricky passes to the centre who presses him for more. The girl then disappears and Tarr finds that she has been secreted back to Moscow. He finds her diary in one version which discloses about the Mole at the centre and he goes on the run to where he has a woman and child. It is Tarr that spurs Oliver Lacon the Cabinet office security coordinator and his Minister to ask Smiley to come out of his enforced retirement and investigate using Peter Guillam the trusted organiser of the Scalphunters at the Brixton former school house (since the reorganisation) to bring Smiley to see them and find out what is what.

It is in this book carried foreword to the TV and film that Le Carré makes Smiley a generation younger in order to prolong his working life and makes Guillam a young man when before this he had joined the Circus with Smiley.

Smiley sets up a base at a private hotel with self contained flatlets, a short distance from Paddington Station, and asks Peter to obtain readily available information for him from the Circus but then more secure records, warning that if caught Peter has to deny any involvement. He wants Peter to first provide him with information on all those who left service following the resignation and death of control, who was dying prior to the failed mission to learn the identity of the Mole.

This leads him Smiley finding that Jim Prideaux survived, was repatriated and then sent to become a Lotus Easter, He also finds that the Control research assistant Connie Sachs was also sent away because it was claimed she had become too fanciful and needed to go back to the real world. It is through Tarr, Prideaux and Sachs that Smiley is able to work out the mystery of who is the Mole and the whys and whats. He visits the home of Control and finds the chess pieces which had carried the small photos of the senior members of the Circus -, Alleline, Haydon, Bland Easterhase and Smiley and which excluding himself narrow the number to four -Tinker, Tailor Soldier etc.

As with all such situations the Russian spy plan is long ranged determined once the Mole has been established, in this instance a willing recruit who disliked that happened to the UK following the end of World War II and the giving up of the Empire. He and others have argued that Britain was finished as a world power and the Traitor decided he could make a difference to the future by working for the Soviets.

One of the better features of the film is the decision to use a Christmas party at Circus to provide flashbacks. It id a cinematic device showing that with hindsight all the indications of what was to come were there. Someone in face mask of Stalin (Brand I think) arrives in Santa clothing and a sack of present giving, and leads everyone in a Chorus of the Russian National Anthem, one of the great stirring anthems in the world and of which their are 30 recordings available on the Internet Russian Anthem Museum to listen too including that of the Moscow’s Children’s choir and a Rock version. While it is playing Smiley discovers the relationship between his wife and Bill Haydon and we the audience note that there is a special relationship between Bill and Prideaux played by King’s Speech Academy award winner Colin Firth and also the excellent Mark Strong.

Given that Le Carré based his British double agent on Guy Burgess who was part of a homosexual ring it is interesting that the book only makes veiled references noting towards the end that Prideaux is in love with Haydon and young Guillam who in the book is a notorious womaniser is portrayed by Benedict Cumberbach as a homosexual who when Smiley becomes worried that the Mole will react as the net closes persuades him to give up his live in relationship with a school master who is sent packing, for the man’s protection rather than his own.

The plan involved placing a contact on the staff of the Soviet Embassy in London, officially a Cultural attaché who becomes exceptional at his job. He is spotted by Connie Sachs when she sees film of a parade in which the attaché is saluted by a General which meant that he must have held an important and senior role in the Military and is in fact a wartime hero. It is when Connie played by Kathy Burke, in the film, spots this discrepancy and reports to her new superiors that she is quickly pensioned off. The character of Connie is based on Millicent Bagot 1907-2006 who as Soviet expert working for MI5 advised that Kim Philby (MI6) had been a member of the Communist Party. She was awarded the MBE and CBE.

In order to ensure that someone suitable replaces Control, played by John Hurt in the film, and to further the plan to gain access to USA intelligence, they arrange for the attaché, Polyakov, to offer to provide high level intelligence information in exchange for British information. Both sides in effect start to officially provide low level information to each other “chicken feed” mixed in with some more important stuff, with the Soviet information sufficient to attract the interest of the USA who had become hesitant about too close involvement because of early double spy scandals. However in addition to this the Merlin continues to provide any information which is useful to Moscow as he has been doing throughout most of his time at the Circus.

The exchange of information is called “Witchcraft” and is put to Lacon and the appropriate government Minister by Alleline, Haydon and co during the time that Control has become ill.

Percy Alleline his official number 2 has always carried a resentment since he was a undergraduate pupil of Control and was not rated by his tutor and once put in charge he pressed the Minister via Lacon to approve sharing the info with the Cousins- the USA.

What emerges is that Prideaux had warned Haydon of his secret mission although Karla-Polyakov- Haydon had picked the Czech General to defect knowing that this would ensure that Czech background and speaking Prideaux would be sent. In the film his shooting is not planned hence the efforts of the new Director of Operations- Haydon to gain his release home. Haydon learns of the development when staying with Anne while Smiley is returning from Berlin. The Wrangler - wireless operator and cryptographer on duty had advised Control who had become frozen and unwilling to advise how the situation should be dealt with. The Wrangler had then rang Smiley’s home and Ann had answered and then advised her lover who had gone to get things organised at the Circus, but then returned to greet Smiley pretending to have brought a painting for Anne which he said she liked but also as additional cover for his position.

The unexpected development which stops the Russian play from being effective is the relationship with Ricki Tarr established with the wife of the Trade Mission leader to Turkey and his finding out about the existence of the traitor.

Smiley asks Guillam to risk his position by getting hold of a copy of the Diary record of urgent calls (flash) which shows the missing pages deleted, and during the successful attempt he is called to the top floor to be cross examined by the new regime over his recent contact with Ricki Tarr. He makes light of the request without knowing that Tarr is in the UK and it is his evidence which has created the current investigation. When he finds Tarr with Smiley he has come to believe that Tarr is the renegade and that the story of the Mole is a fabrication created to try and save his own skin. He is disabused of this by Smiley.

It is Tarr that is asked to spring the trap by going to Paris where the local man was responsible for his training. He sends a message saying that he has information important about the future of the Circus. He gets a message back requiring more information which is the anticipated reaction. In London Toby Easterhase has been confronted with the reality of his position that he has become a willing pawn to a Russian inspired double agent plot. He readily yields the location of the secret safe house approved by the Minister and this enables the placed to be examined and prepared for Smiley to wait inside with his team first keeping watch on the Circus and see the assembling of the trio, Alleline, Haydon and Bland, Easterhase having been told to take the time off in advance of the trap. Those unaware of what happens in the book or TV series have to wait before finding out which of the three is the traitor, who we are told is arriving at the Safe House.

We overhear a conversation in which Polyakov reminds of his protected status as a member of the Embassy staff adding however that on recall he will be sent to Siberia because of the failure of the mission while Haydon can be expected to be treated with honour on his expulsion to Moscow.

Smiley enjoys putting the boot in on the Minister who sacked him and in turn is asked to take over on an interim basis in order to sort out the mess.

Alleline is sent on permanent gardening leave.

Tarr goes off to meet up with his son and the child’s mother, but he had also wanted Smiley to negotiate the return of Irina the woman who revealed the existence of a Mole to him. However we know she had been killed along with her husband.

Prideaux reveals to Smiley who visits the school what happened to him after his capture and how he had held out for as long a she could before revealing the concern of Control about a Mole. He is shocked to learn that all the operatives in Hungry/Checko were rounded up and executed but in the book it is explained that this was arranged in advance, He seeks revenge after learning that the traitor was Haydon who he had told of his secret mission when ordered not to do so

Connie returns to help Smiley and Guillam is advanced to the top floor.

I leave till last the meeting of Smiley with Bill at the Training centre in Yorkshire where he is held. This was at Haydon’s request before going to Russia. He asked Smiley to pass on money for his current woman who has a baby. He will provide for them but Smiley is asked to emphasise that the break will be a final one. It is at this point Haydon admits his bi-sexuality asking Smiley to pass on a couple of hundred pounds from the Reptile fund to keep his mouth shut! I forget why the fund is called as it is.

The Housekeepers are the Internal auditors; the Inquisitors- the interrogations, that is an easy one; the Janitors - the Operation staff at the Circus; the Lamplighters - not easy, those who provide surveillance and act as couriers; Mothers- secretaries and trusted typists serving senior officers at the Circus and who are regarded as good bed mates by the Scalphunters and those of similar personality at the centre; Nuts and Bolts, the technology providers of the day; Pavement Artists- those who follow targets in the street; Shoemakers- Forgers of documents; Babysitters, easy one - Bodyguards and Burowers- Researchers recruited direct from University with Gold and Treasure- high quality intelligence offered or gained.

And then there is Ann and where Haydon admits it was Karla’s idea for him to seduce because he regarded Smiley as the main threat to plan and that by having the affair it would help to keep Smiley from seeing Bill as he was. He admits he has seduced many Ann’s to gain information and further his position.

Bill then argues that at least he made his mark on the world which Smiley find contemptible.

Hating the situation more by the minute Smiley leaves and drives fast to Oxford for lunch. He then goes to the pictures and has a meal out on his own arriving home a little drunk at midnight only to find Lacon together with the Minister Miles Sercombe--yes related to Ann, Smiley’s wife but I cannot remember how, and they drive off all the way back to Sarratt because the body of Bill has been found there. His neck Broken. We are left to assume it is Prideaux because for the rest of the term he is in bad spirits cheered up by Bill Roach the boy loner he takes up after his arrival as a newboy. Prideaux cheers up as the term ends with the help of Roach. In the film Prideaux cuts the strings with Roach telling him to become normal and play with other boys. We then see Prideaux shoot Haydon dead at a distance with a riffle with the two looking intently at each other and the expression on Haydon’s face inviting him to get on with it.

Gently by the Shore and Gently Down the Stream

Alan Hunter was a prolific writer of police detective fiction with 46 books about Inspector George Gently of Scotland Yard who commenced as a mature officer and who managed to continue working from 1944 to 1999, although I not know if the later novels were set in the past. The BBC commissioned or bought four mini series of self contained dramas after seeing the pilot in 2007. Apart from 2009 when there were four episodes there have been two in the other three years, 11 in total.

Inspector Gently is no Wallander although Martin Shaw as Gently is as good as Kenneth Branagh, an actor who made his national name through the TV series of the Professionals as Raymond Doyle with Lewis Collins as Broadie and Gordon Sinclair as their CI5 boss George Cowley and a long way from Spooks. Doyle was recruited from the ranks of the police and later he was to star in the last three years of the series The Chief (Constable) and a long running battle with the Home Office. From this he graduated to a Judge, Judge John Deed and to more battles this time with Justice Department officials and Politicians who hated his independent mind and tendency to achieve the truth and Justice. So there is logic that he should also perform in the role as a confident, thoughtful successful villain catcher of the novels.

The novels are set in East Anglia and the Broads whereas the TV series was moved to the North East with the recent series set in the city of Durham although the County headquarters has long been located on a site on the outskirts of the city along with County Hall.

In Gently Upside Down the episode appears to be set in the 60-70’s era when young girls first started to wear colourful skirts and a regional TV show featured young people dancing to the latest records. Three young women become part of an audience where the director and his camera has a penchant for attempt find out if the girls are wearing knickers, something for which a national TV series achieved notoriety before attention was directed to Pan’s People. There was a TV rock and pop show in the North East but some two decades later called the Tube which featured a host of regional bands some from the North East who went onto national and some to International fame. In the Gently programme the director/producer takes a liking to one of the three friends and finds her frank and direct approach life in keeping with the changing times and moves her in as hostess forcing the aging professional and Lethario to throw in the towel and move back to London. In the North East The Tube was the starting point for Muriel Gray, Leslie Ash and more significantly Paula Yates other with Jules Holland as with the Tube, the TV show in episode becomes national

Now to the ploy having already mentioned three suspects for the murder of an exceptionally bright sixth former destined to Oxford who had disappeared with a small suitcase and whose body is discovered in shall grave in woodland.

There are six possible suspects for Gently to sort out in total. The producer director of the show in his thirties but with a definite eye for the girls. Then there is the former host also with a reputation for inviting the participating young females for a drink after the show and where there is evidence of an exchange of notes written on a beer glass mat between him and the deceased. He makes no secret of trying it on with the lasses at every opportunity but admits the murdered girl had knocked him back with her clever wit.

The third possibility is another bright girl at the school and friend rival of the dead girl. She is found to have lied about the evening of the disappearance claiming to have gone to the show with the third friend but had not done so. The fourth suspect is the music teacher as again it is shown that his alleged alibi of being at home with his wife and children is not so. However it is eventually established he was having an affair with the young woman offered a career in the TV show and alleged friend of the deceased.

The fifth suspect is the working class miner father of the girl who is shown to have lost his temper and hit the girl in the mouth the night she disappeared. There is the dark suggestion of an illicit relationship although he and his wife argued that they failed to understand or be able to communicate with their amazing daughter who lived in her world, with an ability to quote poetry lines to suit most situations and conversational exchanges. His frustration comes from never having had the opportunity for an education and to express his poetic soul, something which is revealed when his wife insists that he reads out what he wrote when their daughter was born.

This then brings the most likely suspect, the older English teacher of the girl and father of the young woman launched on a TV career. He becomes the chief suspect when it is discovered that over a decade before he had a relationship with a sixth form pupil of ability who now undertakes menial work as a single parent supporting her bright secondary school attending son. It is established that he did have a relationship with the dead girl and was the father of her unborn child and that the girl had packed the case with a view to moving into with the school master who wife had taken her life from mental troubles leaving her husband to bring up their two daughter, an elder daughter by many years who acted as house keeper to the rest of the family.

Yes and she did it. The girl had called at the home knowing the father and younger daughter were out to announce her intentions to the older sister/housekeeper and in effect to say she proposed to become step mother to a woman several years old. The depressed daughter perhaps taking after her mother had snapped and killed the girl unintentionally and then father full of remorse but also minded to protect his career, had attempted to bury the girl and deny any knowledge of what happened.

The format of this episode is similar to one of the early novels, the third in the series, Gently Down the Stream. As in the TV series Gently has an assistant, a sergeant. In the novel Dutt the assistant appears colourless, does a lot of hard work which brings rewards but never is able to put two and two together. In the TV series the assistant is not a likeable character. He messed up his marriage and fails as a bachelor now about Town. He is prepared to cross the line, breaking in to premises without a warrant and roughing up prisoners. He is an unlikely police detective. Another aspect of the book compared to the TV series is that the characters tend to be stock and one dimensional. Moreover I worked out who did it, and who therefore did not by page 65 of the 248.

A business man who can afford a Chauffer Cook, Housemaid and Gardener is identified as the victim of a fire on a one birth boat on the broads at the end of week’s hire. Gently is brought in when the pathologist determines that the man was shot and died before the fire. Gently discovers the man had hired the boat with his personal secretary who had disappeared and that shortly before the holiday the man had drawn several thousand pounds, a fortune at the time in the 1957 and had commenced to liquidate the business. It looked as if the couple were about to run away together although the girl and the chauffer had disappeared.

The disappearance of the chauffer suggested he had killed his employer for the money and because the man wanted to sack him because he was regarded a supporter of his legal wife who had recruited him. The young secretary was considered a possible accomplice having duped her employer.

Another possibility was the man’s son a poet and Oxford University student who did not get on with his father but he is ruled out when it is discovered he was checking on his mother because she was having an affair with the family solicitor. The daughter who is a fan of her father is unwilling to explain her full whereabouts on the evening of the murder The book portrays something of the life on the Broads, those hiring out boats and those making living in other ways.

Eventually the young woman, the secretary, is tracked down, living of her own and she attempts to take her own life and then gives the impression that she is the guilty one. But her personality and her way of life suggest otherwise and moreover there has been another murder of a woman who appears to have found something out. And who has passed on some money, money which it looks belonged to the dead man. Then of course it is worked out.

The business man is not dead and is posing as someone else in disguise. His daughter is an accomplice to the deception because she is an amateur actress. She had been accidentally discovered by the woman and she had to die also. What I do not understand is why the two did not just run off together. Everyone would have been with that.

Nearly all the novels have Gently in the title and I do not know if they feature someone else or the writer could not think of a suitable title to make a play on Gently. In Goodbye China. China is a solitary man, considered to be a tramp, who is found dead. This is not so much a dun it but you prove it and what is there to prove. We are given aspects of the truth as the episode progresses. A large young man of limited abilities living in a residential institution goes to the kitchen one night and there discovers two brothers messing abut looking for something to steal. Recognising the youth as a simpleton they tie him up take him out to a park where there is one of those old wooden roundabouts where the young man is placed and is pushed round and around as fast as possible, something that he hates.

The bullying is seen by an old man who lives in lodgings nearby overlooking what has happened and he cones down to remonstrate. The boy with mental disabilities always has with him a pack of cigarette cards, a full set which he likes to look at in their order one to 50 in rows. These falls out and the youth attempts to gather them together but one of the attackers prevents him and the old man gathers some and attempts to return them. The young man is enraged at what has happened, lashes out and the old man falls, hits his head and dies.

The boy is the only child of a local senior police officer and his wife who they usually look after but placed in the institution for the occasional night or weekend if they are away and unable keep him with them. They are devoted to the young man in other circumstances. The officer is known to Gently from their previous experience together in the Met and they have mutual high regard. The officer finds out what happened. The two attackers have become out of control of their father, a pig farmer, since their mother left home with another. They have gone off the rails since always getting into trouble with the police. But Gently finds there is no record and that the area appears to have far fewer convictions for youth crime than would be expected. The police are operating an illegal and secret corporal punishment system with the approval of parents as an alternative to the young people gaining a record.

The father had allowed the two tearaways to be taken by an assistant to a senior police officer two an approved school where one of the staff allows the boys to be held in no longer used holding cells in the basement and where are kept the instruments of birching from the time when they would be part of the sentencing of the young people. The reason why police have access is because the wife of the assistant is having an affair with the staff member.

Unfortunately the two young men refuse to be broken by the physical punishment and therefore there is continuing risk that they will reveal what happened and therefore the son could face a charge of manslaughter or be removed from their direct care because of his temper and potential danger to others. Worse still one of the young men commits suicide and his body is taken away and held at the local mortuary with a sympathetic coroner treating the case as a the death of unknown individual.

At first the assistant wants to take the blame for the involvement of his superior, He has nothing to live for as his wife is establishing a new life with the staff member the Approved school. However when she sees his willingness to take responsibility and his continuing love for her she is prepared to stand by him although he will lose his job and go to prison for his part in what has been happening. The former colleague pleads to let matters rest because if he goes to prison, his wife will not be able to cope with the son and the boy will become a permanent resident of an institution. The sergeant suggests that they do walk away but Gently arrests his friend. Gently is not the virtuous one authorising the Sergeant to break into the residence of the Pig farmer when he is not there to try and find evidence about the whereabouts of the brothers. He finds some of the cigarette cards which Gently had previously seen in a drawer when inspecting the bedroom but had not appreciated their significance until seeing the son of the former colleague playing with part of the same set of cards.

The episode ends with Gently working out where the old man had lived and spending time in his room. The man had been an informant for Gently in times past and they had become friends in the way that an Inspector can become friendly with an informant. The man was however grateful for the help that Gently had given to starting a new life.

Gently by the Shore is the second of the publish novels in the series. A body is washed up on the beach of a seaside resort and no one comes forward to identify the individual who has been stabbed four times. The reason being that he arrived in the town wearing a beard.

The local police are forced to call in Gently because of publicity about the case although they regard the matter as a routine checking of what has been done and confirmation that without any leads or identification the mystery will remain unsolved. Slowly Gently unravels a case of international intrigue.

To the amazement and denials of the local constabulary Gently uncovers that the town is the headquarters of a secret organisation bent on taking power. The chief is someone who owns the local arcade and alcoholic drinking bar frequented by low life’s and dodgy characters including a blond prostitute from London up for the holiday season with her pimp Peachey. Under threats of death she had lured the man, an American of central European background to a condemned home on the cliff which experts anticipated would fall into the sea at any moment because of coastal erosion. The murderer, a man with a facial scar, had attempted to skip the country after lying low until the publicity and the Inspector and gone away.
He is caught by the British security service who had been investigating the activities of the organisation with the help of Interpol. They were after the top man in the UK but were prepared to settle for the murderer.

Gently persuades them to release the prostitute on the basis that she and the pimp will be at risk from the boss who it is hoped will show his hand which of course he does attempting to use the same knife or kind of knife as used to kill the man on the shore. Of course there are lots of twists and turns involving several characters and a sub plot of counterfeit $100 bills with two local minor villains braking in to try and find the rest of the loot and hen being implicated in the murder by the actual villains who take back the money from where it was hidden and replacing it with the clothing of the naked man on the shore.

Gently triumphs having kept quite at a top level meeting between the local Chief Constable and team and the National security people, until the opportune moment when he reveals that he knows who the leader is and how to catch him. There is a good portrait of a season town in the early fifties.

Martin Shaw is excellent as the Inspector and the writers and directors manage to engage the audience with characters who interest so that we overlook flaws in the plots. I was not engaged in similar manner by the novels although those were the early ones and I shall try and find some of his later works especially any where the TV series has been based to come to a final conclusion.

The Game of Thrones 530-807

I have finished reading the first book of series and watched the final episodes of the first season of the TV series and reflected on the whole that I have experienced. That the TV series raised the ages of some of principal characters to make their involvement possible in the blood shedding and the sex was the right decision as has been the portrayal of these aspects in a frank and open way rather than in a self indulgent voyeurism with which Spartacus is associated. The overall story as yet to be revealed and the inherent themes are all such as make the series a memorable one and the book a worthwhile read. Having purchased the books that have been published to date I well be able to read them if for any reason the work does not continue with further Televisions productions. I am most impressed so far,

I have decided to write this final piece on the work with the notes made after the first episode of the last part of the Game of Thrones pages 531 to 616 which lived up to my anticipation and opened the news that Lord Eddard Stark keeper of the Kings Hand had not been assassinated but was incarcerated in a dungeon. His fate which I know is not a good one is yet to be determined. I will then cover the rest as has now unfolded and revealed to me as it has been to other watchers and readers.

The TV episode 8 The Pointy End concentrated on the roles of Robb the eldest legitimate child aged only fourteen years in the book but looking early to middle 20’s in the TV production as he calls those who have sworn loyalty to his father to assemble and march with him upon the forces of the Lannisters. Understandably there is concern and questioning of his abilities and leadership qualities and during an assembly at table one draws a knife and Robb’s direwolf charges and removes two of the man’s fingers. Robb comments that it was unfortunately that the dog had misunderstood the gesture as offensive when all the man intended to do with to cut his meat to which the man replied with humour that the meat was tough. This appeared to have quietened the leaders of the men, an assembly of 20000 with those of the senior Lannister alone amounting to over 20000 plus those of Jamie, not stated, those back at the capital and the motley outlaw leaders who have taken the Imp Tyrion prisoner and with whom he has cut a deal. Thus the combined forces of the Lannisters exceed those from the North.

The deal is that the men are provided with the latest weaponry and given the lands outside the castle of Lord Arryn making the wife of the former King’s Hand a prisoner in her isolated and impregnable stronghold. His father greets him with mixed feelings, surprised that he is still alive and disappointed that he was taken prisoner, so easily! Tyrion makes light of the situation but the outlaw leaders makes the point that he remains their prisoner until his father has delivered the promises that have been made by the son.

Back at the Capital the two daughters of Lord Stark go their separate ways. Sansa is delighted that Joffrey is now King and sees herself as Queen, with the Queen mother, questioning the loyalty of the girl to her future husband and regime because of the concern expressed about her father. She is asked to prove her commitment by writing letters to her mother and brothers requesting that they also commit themselves loyally to her future husband and the rule of the Lannisters.

When the Queen’s men comes for Arya she is practising with the swordsman both using wooden practice weapons and therefore no match for the men who have come for her, claiming they are send by her father. While the sword master fights she is able to escape and using all her skills decides to make her way out of the castle through the secret passageway which led her previously to outside the walls of the city. Her first idea was to go to the stables and take a horse but there a stable boy recognised her and tried to take her prisoner to gain favour with the Queen. Armed with the blade given to her by the half brother she kills the boy and finding the exits guarded on the look out for her she finds the courage to take the route which frightened her so much before and make her way to the family home. There is an excellent section when child puts to use all the teachings of the swordsman battling with her natural fears about her own and her family’s future. It is noted that when confronted by the queen Sansa makes no reference to the plight of her sister, something which is of concern to the rest of the family.

On receiving the letter from her eldest daughter Catelyn decides to go immediately the encampment of her son to try and persuade him not to be involved in the forthcoming battles, but she is proud of his determination to do so, Back at their home Bran tries to comfort his four year old younger brother that his parents and older brother will return but the child comments, that everyone including his sisters leaves and do not return, Bran goes to his mother’s favourite place by the water to reflect on the old Gods and there encounters the wilding girl who warns that his bother is marching in the wrong direction and should be moving north where the threat comes from ancient ones as Winter begins to approach.

There is also concern at the wall where Jon and Sam encounter a body whose death suggests a force other than wildings and both are congratulated for their behaviour and begin to feel like true men of the Watch. Jon is called to the attention of the Commander who asks him to pour wine for himself as well as for him and then reveals the news of the death of the King and the imprisonment for treason of his father. He cautions Jon about doing anything precipitous and when the lad gets into a fight with another he is confided to quarters. The young man is aroused by his direwolf and quickly senses that something is amiss and goes to the quarters of the Commander and foils an attempt on the man’s life.

Meanwhile Daenerys having achieved her ambition of getting her husband to take his forces across the water to regain her kingdoms is disturbed as the men start to take the women folk as they move to the coast raiding for slaves and money. She is rebuked by her husband when she questions the need for money as he reminds that it is needed to hire the ships which they need for the sea crossing. She sticks to her ground about the taking of the women saying that if the men want the women they should take the women as wives. This leads to one of his captains threatened by the increasing power of Danny to challenge her husband who kills the man with his bare hands although he is injured in the process. One of the rescued women who Danny has taken under her protection offers to heal the wound with skills learnt from her mother. She is regarded as a Sorceress and is to play a key part in what is to happen. The other captains continue to have questions and doubts about the role of Danny but her husband is impressed seeing this as only an indication that his son to be is filling his wife with courage and the will of a future leader.

Across the water Robb’s leadership continues to be a source fo concern and potential challenge when he decides to free an enemy look out who was trying to assess the number of troops which he has put at over 20000. Robb does not explain his reasons for letting the man return with the information on the size of the enemy and their intentions but we the reader suspect he has a plan, as yet undisclosed. The plan is a clever one. What he does is to sacrifice 2000 of his 20000 men in confronting the forces of the father of Lannister Senior who continues to have contempt for his height challenged son and decides that he and his brigands and wildmen should be at the forefront of the attack on the advances forces of Robb. Tyrion arranges to have a companion for the night before the battle and generally enjoy himself with good food and wine. When the battle is over he is surprised that although injured he is still alive, as is his father and he asks if the battle was won and his father says yes and the process of killing the entire remaining enemy continues. However his father says yes we have beaten the 2000 but the 18000 were elsewhere undertaking a surprise attack on the other brother and his forces.

In order to achieve the surprise victory it is necessary for Robb with his mother and the men to use a gated causeway controlled by a lecherous old war lord who although previously swore loyalty to Lord Eddard is known for his independence of mind and tendency to marry very young girls father several children and then take another wife with eight in total, if I remember correctly. It is Catelyn who takes the responsibility for negotiating a deal which Robb says he accepts and this includes that he will marry one of the warlord’s daughters and that Arya will marry one of the sons. Having negotiated the deal they are able to carry out the surprise attack which is not shown and next we see that Jamie has been captured who they now hope to bargain for the return of Ned and his two daughters.

A good part of this episode Baeolor (9) is devoted to Jon who has a new status on the Watch since saving the life of the Commander who gives him a well made family sword which was to have been passed down to his son who he regards as worthless. The others on the watch all want to see and handle the sword which Jon generously allows them to do so. Jon is called to the top of Wall where one of the elders now blind is chopping away at carcasses to create food for the ravens in their cages. Either on his own initiative or on behalf of the Commander he wants to let Jon Snow know that he understands the dilemma he is in, on one hand to go and help his half brother, half sister and his father and on the sworn loyalty of allegiance to his comrades in the Watch. The man discloses that he faced such a challenge late in life when the reality was that he would have been useless to help and he then also discloses that he is the brother of the Mad King, the Uncle of Daenerys. He is therefore sympathetic to the position of the young man but emphasises that while he will not advise or comment on which choice to make, he will need to decide and that once the decision is made there will be no going back.

Across the water Danny, now in the latter stages of her pregnancy continues to ride horseback by the side of her husband who falls ill as the wound he received when fighter a usurper begins to fester. When he collapses she insists they stop and make camp. Now another senior member of the Dothraki people steps in with his leadership challenge warning Danny that when her husband dies she will be nothing. Danny holds firm and calls on the woman she rescues and who tended her husband’s wounds to assist once more. The woman says that only the use of ancient beliefs can save the Kharl and she told go continue which involves the slaughtering of the Kharl’s horse with blood splattering on him and Danny. She is told to leave an ensure no one enters the tent and when the latest usurper moves to stop the old woman Danny is pushed to the ground and appears to bring forward the birth prematurely. When the man who has been her escort throughout the period in exile intervenes he is wounded but manages to kill the usurper. Danny enters the tent to seek the help of the old woman.

Back in the capital Lord Eddard in chains is approached by one of the other former advisers to the King, the eunuch who pleads with Ned to do all that he can to bring peace, to call on his son to stop the advance and to do what the Queen bids in order to protect his daughters. In the final scene he is brought before the public to admit his treason and that he and been wrong. Both his daughters look on with Sansa dressed in finery as the future wife of King Joffrey approves what he is doing while Arya dressed as an urchin looks on in horror. He sees her as he speaks to the crowd.

I therefore come the final episode of the first series Fire and Blood where I have also read that a second has been commissioned because of the positive audience response in the various countries where production has now been shown.

The episodes open with the news that following his speech on the orders of the King and his mother, Lord Eddard Stark is beheaded to the acclaim of the crowd. Sansa collapses in the shock of this betrayal which Ayra is protected by the man who provides the Watch at the Wall, the Black Watch, with new recruits. He cuts down her hair and tells her to function as a boy as he takes her North the Wall. There is an incident in which another youngster attempts to take the sword away from her and she threatens to the kill the individual boasting that he would be her second. The incident is stopped by another in the convoy, the blacksmith assistant, one of the previous Kings illegitimate children who had been visited by Ned, Lord Stark when tracing the investigation undertaken by the previous Hand to the King. I am not sure this part is the first book as I do not remember reading,

Sansa wishes to return home and experiences an assault by the King who says that his sister decided that they will marry in time. She is horrified by the betrayal by the King and his mother. She once was thrilled by his touch but now this makes her flesh cringe. He tells her he wants to have child as soon as she is capable. He forces her to see the head of her father and says he will give her another present on her birthday. Her brother Robb's head.

The grim nature of reality has come to her. A thousand leagues to the North the news of the death of his father has decided Jon to leave his post, to join his half brothers to avenge his father. Before he gets far he is overtaken by his three closest friends on the Watch all who took their oaths together. The persuade him to return. The Commander takes the decision to assemble the full force of the Watch to go beyond the wall to investigate what has been happening and to all try and find out what has happened to Lord Eddard’s brother who failed to return from the previous expedition to find out what was happening. The Commander questions Jon’s will and is satisfied with the commitment of the young man to participate in the quest with them. We see the troop leave the security of the Wall to out into the icy wilderness beyond.

Back in the area between the Kings Landing capital and their home the news of the death of Ned has reached his wife and son. She is tempted to kill Jamie and is her son but they hold fire until they have freed Sansa and Ayra after which she sears to her son that they will kill them all. She nevertheless strokes Jamie across the face with a rock and he admits that he did push her sun Bran off castle wall but does not disclose why. The news has reached that the brother of the King is claiming the throne. All Catelyn wants is get her daughters back and for them all to go home in peace. However the other Lords are not prepared to return without retribution for the deaths of relatives and comrades. They proclaim Robb King of the North.

Lord Lannister speaks approvingly of his son Tyrion’s recent conduct and his counsel and his father shares with him his plan which is to use a small force to cause havoc in area while they reassemble and prepare to make united battle against the forces assembled to meet them. In the meantime he announces that Tyrion is to become the new Hand to his nephew and put him and the boy’s mother, his sister, in their places. The only condition is that he does not take his woman, the whore, to court with him. Tyrion tells her of his father plan and his intention to take her with him as his mistress so that she can have an effect on the other women of the court. Tyrion remains the character of the series and the book.

The most dramatic development is however across the water where Daenerys discovers the treachery of the Sorcerer woman who has taken and killed her child after she gave birth claiming that it has been a reptilian monster. While her husband the Dothraki Lord has survived he has become a silent motionless shell of a man who enjoys laying out in the sun. However his captains and menfolk have for the greater part returned to their natural lifestyle abandoning the man who can no longer sit on a horse. The remainder with her are the women she rescued and a few of the older members of the Dothraki plus her personal protector. He is horrified suspecting that she proposes to die with her husband on the funeral pyre. However first she frees everyone to go or stay with her and the she orders the sorceress who betrayed her out of revenge for what her husband did to her people, to be tied to the pyre. The woman says she will not hear her scream. She does. But Danny also enters the burning conflagration and moves into its centre.

When the fires ends and the remaining embers cool, Danny is found alive at the centre fulfilling the prophecy that the descendents of the dragon. It is implied that she had taken the three dragon eggs given to her at the time of her marriage into the fire with her and these have down hatched and cling to her. The Protector and those who accepted her offer to remain with her as free men and women kneel to her in awe and admiration. She was confident she was the true heir to the Dragon Kings and would survive the conflagration.

So we have the breakup of the seven Kingdoms with three Kings and the Dragon Queen across the water, while the long dark Winter is coming with the re emergence of the undead.

The Game of Thrones pages 266-529

I saved watching and reading the next part of the Game of Thrones until this weekend in order to concentrate on my new programme working on my contemporary art project. This was written a week ago with a fourth programme to watch and fifth tomorrow.

The consequence of the gap of four weeks has meant having to remind myself of the story although I have quickly become familiar with the main characters. Rather than attempt to convey the twists and turns of the story over the month I am reporting the overall progress relating to the main characters plus aspects of the story which attracted my attention from the text together with any aspects of the book not included in the TV programmes or remembered when reading the text.

I begin with Jon Snow, the illegitimate son of the Lord of the North Eddard Stark, now the King’s Hand who despite his self exile to become a member of the Black Watch, one suspects he has a major part to play as the story unfolds. He shows great promise in his training but makes himself unpopular by his support for a new recruit Samwell sent by his father because the boy was coward hearted and refused to adopt the ways expected of a warrior. Jon has protected Samwell from the other recruits and the training Master. Both have misgivings about the life, especially the lack of contact with women and the lifelong celibacy membership of the brotherhood required. Jon grows anxious when his father’s brother fails to return and in the last TV episode covered by this writing, his riderless horse returns as he and Sam keep lookout at the top of the wall. Sam is delighted when he is told he will pass the training and become a Steward assisting in the Library and Rookery. When it was Jon turn to learn of his appointment he is shocked to be told he is to become the personal Steward of the Lord High Commander, nothing more than a personal servant and he felt humiliated as was the intention, but also one suspects to be protected for some greater purpose. The young men are seen taken the oath of commitment to the Order outside the Wall being told that they go down on bended knee as boys and rise as men. As they do this his direwolf Ghost returns carrying a severed hand in its mouth. There are several vivid scenes of the ice covered wall, the harshness and bleakness of the environment and the cold which permeates every aspect of their lives, but still nothing like the extent of the cold once the era of the long Winters take over from the Summertime.

The wife of Lord Eddard Stark, Catelyn, having visited her husband (to advise of the attempt on the life of her middle son and together with her husband learned that although the knife belonged to the former young man who sought her hand, known as Littlefinger he claimed to have handed it to the Imp, Tyrion, the height challenged likeable wayward, truth telling brother of the Queen), goes to visit her sister to seek further information on the death of the her sister’s husband. While on the journey they take overnight lodgings at a simple inn where she recognises several knights on their way to the tournament being held in the capital of the Seven Kingdoms in honour of the appointment of her husband as the Kings principal adviser, The King’s Hand. She calls in their assistance to apprehend the Imp, Tyrion, when he arrives from his visit to the Wall, and unknowingly to Catelyn, his visit to her home Winterfell where he devised a frame which enabled her son to ride a horse again and regain his will to live. An action unlikely if he had indeed been behind the attempted killing.

On their way to the extraordinary castle of the House of Arryn, along what is known as the High Road they are attacked by Brigands and Tyrion is released to aid in the fight for survival. He remains a prisoner thereafter although seeds of doubt at his guilt following his professed innocence begin to nag at Catelyn. The Castle is considered impregnable because it is approach through a guarded valley and then can only be reached part way or mule followed by either foot or winched baskets by which the supplies reach the fort. A disturbing sight greets Catelyn because her younger sister has aged to the extent she now looks older and she is still suckling her son who is already of an age to walk and talk. She wants Tyrion put immediately to death because he is of the House of Lannister but Catelyn agrees to his right to trial.

He is kept in a dungeon with a difference as there is large open to the elements side from floor to ceiling, beyond which there is a sheer drop to the bottom of the mountain. The guard is a dullard and a bully, depriving him of food but who he persuades on promise of gold to take message to Catelyn on basis he wishes to confess. He confesses his past wickedness but says he is not guilty of the crime accused. This leads to trial by combat where he is represented by someone who wins and he is released with ne companion offering to go with him along the notorious High road where it is anticipated he will not survive the murdering bandits.

In the capital Eddard has failed to prevent the holding of a tournament although his attention is directed at the activities of the former King’s hand who was visiting the illegitimate children of the King, one is working as a Blacksmith’s assistant and the other a teenage girl with a baby working at a brothel who remains in love with King waiting for him to return to her. He also finds he was exploring a large dusting book on the history of the King’s family. He lowly works out that all the illegitimate children have dark hair but his son Joffrey and the other children have fair hair like his wife and other members of her family. He finally works out that her children and the heir Joffrey to whom his daughter is betrothed is not the rightful heir. Before confronting the King and Queen with his findings he is wounded by one of the men of the Queen’s brother who goes to take him hostage on learning that Tyrion has been taken prisoner by Catelyn. When he recover he makes arrangements to return home with his daughters after having a row with the king over the decision to send an assassin to kill Daenerys who has become pregnant by the Dothraki Chief, Khal Drogo.

Sansa his daughter has re-established a relationship with her betrothed after the incident with the Direwolf and Arya and the butchers boy learning sword play. However she is disappointed when after the jousting and feasting she is left in the company of an ugly and wild man to escort her back to the Castle rather than Joffrey himself. Nevertheless she is distraught by the plan of her father knowing this will deprive her of becoming Queen. The reality of life is yet to dawn on this young woman no more an adolescent girl.

I noted the description of the meal at the feast comprising a suckling pig, pigeon pie and turnips soaked in butter with a honey comb afterwards. The coincidence is that only recently I mentioned to someone at the Marriott Leisure who had been on holiday in Majorca that I had twice eaten a suckling pig at a restaurant in the city centre during my only visit to the island and the only occasion that I have eaten this meal, Pigeons which are regarded as vermin has long since been a English food as they honeycomb for those that like honey.

Arya meanwhile has been enjoying swordplay lessons from a tutor selected by her father. He has been teaching her poise by standing on one leg blindfolded on the edge of stairs and also speed by learning how to catch cats. When undertaking the latter dressed in old clothes as boy she finds herself in under castle workings and in hiding overhears two men plotting to kill her father. She then finds herself outside the Castle and has difficulties returning only to find her father displeased by her disappearance and unwilling to hear what she has overheard in detail.

When attacked by the Queen’s brother, Littlefinger had left Ned and his men ostensibly to get the city watch to prevent the very deaths which occur. Either then or subsequently he warns Ned not to trust him. At the tourney the King proposes to enter an event in which men fight together until one is left standing. There is much breaking of limbs and some bloodshedding and the King is more than determined once his wife forbids him. This is seen as a cunning ploy her part as the King always does the opposite and therefore he could easily be killed in the mêlée and his death put down as an accident. He then decides to go hunting and is badly injured by a boar and dies having become too drunk to tackle the beast on his own, having commanded the others to stand by. He sees Lord Stark in private and gets him to write a Will on dictation in which he makes Ned Lord Protector of the realm and to govern until Joffrey is of age. Eddard writes this as rightful heir thus cleverly providing to bypass Joffrey once is position is recognised.

He has already confronted the Queen with his findings about the illegitimacy of Joffrey and the other, something which far from denying she justifies saying that the family have kept the line pure this way for 300 years and that she and her brother being twins shared the same womb and have been together since they were children. She says that nevertheless she did love the King but was shattered when on their wedding night he approached her drunk and called out the name of Ned’s dead sister instead of hers. She had ended a pregnancy caused by the King and for many years had learned how to satisfy him without permitting vaginal penetration. There is a scene where they talk together and she asks if he ever lover her and he admits his was always locked with the death of Stark’s sister.

The Queen chides Lord Stark for having failed to take the crown himself when he had the opportunity all those years ago and that in the Game of Thrones you win or die. Littlefinger also attempts to make a deal with Ned pleading with him to accept Joffrey as the King but working together they will take power. When Ned is summoned to the throne room to pledge obedience to the King who wishes his coronation to take place within two weeks, he reveals the last Will of the King which the Queen mother tares to pieces. Lord Stark as the authorised Protector of the Realm orders the arrest of the Queen and her children but it is Littlefinger who takes a knife to the throat of Ned saying that he warned him no to trust him.

Meanwhile across the water Daenerys has been securing her position as the wife of the Dothraki leader having made their way to the holy city normally in by old women, their slaves and visiting merchant. Her brother has become increasingly frustrated by the lack of action to regain his father’s kingdom and at the way he is treated, especially by his sister. Having struck her at one point he was made to travel on foot and then given the option of continuing to travel on foot or in a cart along with the old, the pregnant and the sick he opts for the cart not knowing that this is a humiliations and opens him to ridicule. He becomes even more upset when Danny achieves great standing and gives proof she will have son by eating raw the heart of a chosen beast. He comments that never has anyone expressed love and appreciation in the way the people demonstrated for her on that occasion.

When he continues to complain adn threaten her because of the lack of respect and failure to regain the crown, Khal Drogo melts gold from him and then pours the molten liquid over his head thus killing him with a gold crown.

When a shipment arrives and a wine merchant offers her a special wine, her escort becomes suspicious and requests the man takes the first glass himself and when he refuses and runs off it is realised this is an attempt to kill her and the unborn child. This puts Khal Drogo into a great rage and he vows to build ships and cross the water with his men and place her on the throne of the Seven Kingdoms.

There was one other development which heralds the way the adventure series is likely to progress. The son of Lord Stark (thrown off the castle home by the Queen’s twin brother when he discovered them together) goes riding with the help of the special saddle created by Tyrion. At one point he becomes detached from the hunting party and finds himself taken prisoner by runaways for the Night Watch and others, including a young woman. He is rescued by his brother and friend and the girl is taken prisoner. She reveals she is a wildling from beyond the great ice wall but has tried to flee as far south as she could because of the impeding arrival of Winter and even more significantly the awakening of the fearful creatures who have not been seen for over a thousand years, but who it is claimed have just been sleeping. The bloodshedding has only begun.

The Game of Thrones 2- pages 109- 265

Despite the inclusion of Sean Bean in the cast and the quantity of flesh exposed during the first episode of Game of Thrones my first reaction to this much heralded new entertainment series on the Sky Atlantic channel was that it was a long way short of proving to be as a good as the Sopranos in the Middle Earth of Tolkien. The setting certainly has elements of Middle Earth but the level of characterization was questionable until I read the opening 100 pages of the original work and reviewed the first episode with a more critical and knowledgeable eye.

I can now report that as consequence of watching the second and third episodes of the TV production and reading the associated text I am greatly more impressed with both and hope that this is communicated in the following notes.

That those with power can be ruthless in their own interests as well as in those of a nation, a community, an organisation or family, remains one of the great lessons of life and leads to an eventual understanding that the behaviour of individuals can be judged from a variety of perspectives leading to a variety of conclusions. Their motivation is important. Does an individual behave in such a way because they are putting self interest or personal ambition, their desires before all other interests? Even where the motives are selfless and honourable, if the outcome is disastrous causing hurt and harm to many, should those responsible be allowed to avoid censure and penalties?

The merit of a good story is that it engages and entertains and the characters are drawn in such a way that they are shown to be layered, complex and meriting our attention.

At the end of the first section of the first book and first TV production episode I had learned that that Eddard, known as Ned Stark, Lord and Warden of the North, was an honourable man putting his sense of duty towards his King before that of family prepared to leave his wife, and three sons with her, and removed the care of his two daughters from their mother into potential great danger from the family of the wife of the King who are believed to have been responsible for the premature death of the man who raised him as his own son. As he prepares to leave with the King and his Court he does not yet know that the Queen was responsible for the near death of his second legitimate son, having pressed her brother and lover to remove the threat to their lives because of what the boy had seen and heard. One suspects that duty to his King and to his murdered care father would have led Lord Stark to be more cautious and take greater care, especially with the welfare of his two daughters.

That the King had become a fat, morally impotent, degenerate, only interested in a life which involved drinking, hunting, eating and a womanising, made Ned’s sense of duty to the institutions of country and its leader more challenging, and also reinforced his initial reluctance to sacrifice personal instincts and interests for the general good.

His wife, who at first pressed him to accept the request in order to find out what had happened to the husband of her sister and if she and her son were as much under threat as the woman believed begs him to stay once her son is found badly injured and in a coma. Her only wish is to be by his side to an extent that her eldest son now appeals to her to think of the welfare of their youngest and help him in the running of the former separate Kingdom on behalf of their father and their people.

It is too easy at this point to condemn the Queen, Cersei Lannister without appreciating her concern that married to man who never loved her, remains in love with the deceased sixteen year of sister of Ned, uninterested in taking responsibility for the day to day running of the state, appointing the right people, managing the finances, ensuring the army is ready to combat any threats, could and would at any time of his choosing find a way to get rid of her with someone younger, especially as he planned to marry off their son to the daughter of his best and loyal friend, he now wanted to de facto take on the responsibilities for running the Kingdom. Do you accept your fate in such a situation or fight? It is also easy to condemn her for having ongoing sex with her twin brother, Ser Jaime, although such a practice has been common among powerful dynasties in human reality and occurs more frequently within the lives of ordinary folk than is usually admitted. It is yet to be revealed although I know in advance that her children are not those of the King but of her twin brother!

Sir Jaime has so far been revealed as a realist and ruthless in protecting interests. However the impression obtained to date is that the attempt to kill Ned’s boy, Bran was more out of loyalty and passion for his sister than considered judgement. He prefers to take a long view about taking outright power, knowing its precariousness, challenges and demands At present I see someone who wants his cake to always be ready to be eaten and enjoyed, in fact someone little different from the King.

As yet the King, Queen, Ned and his wife are unaware, although this changes quickly, that the family from whom they took power has taken a significant step towards launching a military attack to take back their kingdom by Prince Viserys, forcing his adolescent sister Daenerys, into marrying the head of a powerful fighting force, the Dothraki and their leader Viserys appears to have no redeeming features other than the wish to avenge the murder of his father and his elder brother and ending their dynastic rule of centuries. The reader is in no doubt that given the opportunity he would become just as ruthless and self seeking a tyrant as those he wants to replace, and probably more so. His sister‘s plight appeals to us because she is the victim of criminal assaults throughout her childhood, an orphan and homeless and sold off as a child bride to an older man whose language she does not speak. I did hear a joke made about such relationships while listening to one of the cricket audio books about someone who will remain nameless who had married a woman whose language he did not speak and in response to a critical enquiry responded by saying that the best things in life are eating, drinking and making love and the less said during these experiences, the better.

Of the other characters, I and I suspect readers in general, immediately like Ned’s illegitimate son, Jon Snow, not just because of the similar parental circumstances and its repercussion, as in my case, but because he has appears a young man of honour, integrity and a sense of duty. We learn that from the text that he is only 14 years of age looking more like twelve although in the TV production he appears a mature young man.

I /we also like the eldest son who is willing to immediately step back from the life of young man ands take on the duties of his father as head household and the kingdom, although he too is also a teenager. This is more realistic in the TV production because as with all the children their ages are raised to enable adult actors to play their roles and to overcome the problems resulting from their active sexuality.

We also liked the middle son, Bran, because of his sense of adventure, risk taking and individuality and instinctively knew that when he was pushed off the walls of castle he would survive. We also like the younger sister, Arya, who also shows individuality, rebelliousness and also feminist inclinations.
I suspect that the Queen’s young brother, Tyrion, also has an immediate fan club although some will have very different reasons from others. There are those who will be sympathetic because of his biological deformity, height challenged and deformed. There are those who will admire the fact that despite his natural disability he is a great womaniser and likes his food and drink. Others will also appreciate that he is a well read philosophical analyst and observer of the human condition. His dark side is yet to emerge.

We known little of the boy heir to the throne Joffrey although this is to quickly change as the story progresses, and many will dislike his betrothed, Ned’s eldest daughter, Sansa who is vain, shallow, celebrity seeking, uncharitable and dishonest. They appear well suited.

The second episode of the TV production commences different from the text showing the first days of the arranged marriage of the sister to the legitimate claimant to the heredity throne of the Seven Kingdoms. I am not clear if the race of her husband is naturally nomadic or is just travelling great distance to their permanent base. We see the bride hungry and tired and she is advised that things will get better. Her brother is also travelling with them and is advised that he would be better off accepting the hospitality of a more civilised existence. He responds that he is sticking with the hardships in order to ensure that the bargain is honoured and that Khal Drago will lead the Dothraki men across the water to reclaim his Kingdom. Later there is a brief scene in which the husband takes pleasure in the manner of a beast which she does not enjoy. Later she consults the woman slave given to her to teach the ways of love and she advises to always have the man look her in the eye and later still she persuades her husband to do so thus beginning what appears is likely to be a meaningful and developing relationship. All this comes later in the text after several story developments and in fact forms no part of the text covered in this episode but comes later.

In the TV production the second scene switches to where the Queen’s other brother is reading in a stable before breakfast. The young son and his retainer arrive to say the uncle is missed at breakfast and they are setting off home. The boy is then slapped across the face three times for refusing to go and tell Lord Stark and his wife how sorry he is about the “accident” to their son. Tyrion is warned that the boy will tell his mother and will also remember this treatment. Tyrion comments that he hopes the boy will remember the lesson and that should he forget the retainer should remind him. Tyrion is OK or is he?

Later when he and Jon are on their way to the Wall conducted by Ned’s brother, we learn more about the young brother who explains what while his elder brother uses the sword he uses his mind and the mind needs books just as the sword needs a wetstone to sharpen. The scene is used to explain that his brother was the adviser to the former King for 20 years, who then killed him while his sister married the new King. In the book there is much more description and information from the journey of Tyrion and Jon to the Wall. We learn of Tyrion’s interest in Dragons, including a collection of skulls from a thousand and a century and half ago and which I assume will have some significance later in the overall epic.

Earlier Tyrion arrives at the breakfast table demanding bread, fish, a mug of beer and bacon burnt black and greets his “beloved siblings“. He then reveals, in response to a question, that the boy Bran will live. The Queen chides her young brother for wanting to go on a visit to the Great Wall, but he explains he has no intention of joining the Night Watch but wants to stand on its top and piss off the end of the world. The Queen goes immediately leaves with her children horrified at the language, but is more upset by the news that the witness to her treachery lives. His older brother Sir Jaime, suggests it would be better the boy died than remain deformed to which Tyrion reminds of his own plight and that to live is better than to have no life, and that he hopes the boy will live and tell his tale as a consequence of which his loyalty is questioned.

Jon is preparing to join the Night Watch although he appears to have misgivings about the lifelong nature of the commitment, reinforced when later on the trip to the wall with Tyron they are joined by two rapists whose sentence has been commuted to service in the Watch. The Queen’s twin brother also thanks him for the service he will give reminding that it is a lifetime commitment, He notes Jon is waiting for a new sword. This we learn is a special one for the Ned’s younger daughter, the two having a special relationship and he sensing that she is going into danger without his protection. He also says goodbye to his father seeking information about his mother which Ned promises when they next see each other.

Lord Eddard comes to say goodbye to his wife but she no longer wants him to go to the capital reminding that he has choice and to say that he has no choice is what all men do when they have made up their mind to put honour before family wishes and needs. He tells her she will cope when she says she cannot, but she also fears that as before he will return with the child of another woman. Her fears strike home with Ned as shortly after setting off he and the King eat together privately and the king presses him about the identity of Jon’s mother, something which Ned resists. The King is concerned as the news has reached him of the marriage alliance between Daenerys Targaryen and the Dothraki arranged by her brother and the threat this poses. We learn that Khal Drago has not 40000 men to hand but 100000 but Ned is dismissive saying the Dothraki have no ships and if they do manage to cross over he will drive them back to the sea. He is also concerned when the King wants the girl killed, no more than a child. This is the first indication that the King wants to have his own way and that Ned’s task will be far more difficult than he envisaged. It will get worse before the episodes ends.

Previously the Queen visits the sick room where Catelyn keeps watch over her son to “empathise” saying she lost her first born, a boy just like him, implying she will have to let go while offering prayers for his return to consciousness. After the departure of Ned her remaining adviser suggests it is time to sort out the finance and the cost of the Royal visit. She wants to leave this to their steward but is reminded he has gone with Ned. After his departure the man hired by the Queen to kill Bran arrives and the Queen manages to fight him off injuring herself badly. She, the adviser and her eldest son establish that the man must have come with the King’s party. The knife used in the attempted killing is of such quality as to have been given by another. She also investigates the area of the castle from where her son fell and finds evidence of the presence of the Queen. They conclude that the fall was no accident and she determines to ride after her husband, taking a sea route so as join him as soon as he reaches the capital city and warn him of what is now suspected.

We now come to the core event of the second TV episode. Arya, the younger daughter of Ned is practicing sword play with the son of a butcher and this is observed by the King’s son and his betrothed who has been frightened by one of the men used to protect the heir. The Heir now reveals what an obnoxious coward he is by taunting and wounding the Butcher’s boy using a real sword instead of the wooden learning instrument. Arya then humiliates the heir as the direwolf attacks Joffrey biting into his hand to prevent him doing more harm to the butcher’s boy. Sensing she is in danger she runs away and hides until discovered later at night. Meanwhile Joffrey has told his version of events before the King and Queen placing blame on Arya and the butcher’s boy. Ned’s eldest daughter although present throughout the incident denies any knowledge and as a consequence it is the word Joffrey against that of Arya. The consequence of Sansa’s silence is that the butcher’s boy is slaughtered and the King insists that his daughter be punished by the death of her direwolf cub that she has trained well and is much attached. However Arya suspecting such a course has ensured that her pet goes off. The King insists on the punishment which means that Ned is required to kill the remaining direwolf, that belonging to Sansa. She is distraught realising, perhaps for the first time, that her superficial and child’s view of the world is no longer valid in these new circumstances. Ned sensing that what he is doing is wrong, still carries out the command and at the point which the hound is killed Bran wakes from his coma. The second episode ends.

The third episode of the TV production is the most powerful of three and includes major developments in the story line. The hostility between Arya and her sister continues but her father admits that they are both in a dangerous place and that it is important for the family to remain together. He points out that her sister is betrothed and as such she cannot go against what her husband to be says without endangering her own situation. He finds that she practicing with her sword and although she resists in saying who provided the gift he arranges for her to be giving lessons by an expert. He looks on in a mixture of pride and fear, knowing both the necessity of what he is doing and fear of its consequences. Earlier he gives his daughter a present of a doll and she reminds she has not played with dolls since the age of eight.

We follow the continuing journey of Jon, Tyrion and Ned’s brother to the Wall where Jon begins to fully realise the reality of the life he is choosing. There are spectacular views looking down from the top of the wall reached by a primitive manual worked lift system. Of the new recruits Jon is most accomplished fighters and his effort to prove himself arouses the hostility of the other “recruits”, until Tyrion advises him of the backgrounds of the men, one caught stealing food for his sister who had not eaten for three days and accepted the recruitment as an alternative to having an hand chopped off. The advice results in Jon establishing a good relationship with the others as he helps them to learn to sword fight.

Lord Eddard arrives separately with his daughters at the capital and is immediately summoned to a Council, but before gaining entry to the meeting room he is confront by the Queen’s twin brother in a manner best described as unfriendly and threatening. The Council appears comprised of four men all with backstories. Ned is shocked that not only is the King not present but they are delegated tasks which this time involving finding funds for a tournament to be held in his honours. He then learns that the state is in debt by several millions in the currency and that she King shows no regard for the position accept to order additional expenditure for his interests. The Council is then shocked when Ned says the tournament will not go ahead and refuses to commence planning. A message arrives for Ned by raven to say that Bran and come out of the coma but cannot remember what happened. The Queen criticises her brother for what he did and the continuing threat to them. She also comforts her son whose wound from the direwolf is in the process of healing leaving scars which she says she should bear with honour. When he admits aspects of the truth of what happened her she points out that when he is King he will and should fashion truth as he wishes. However she counsels against his wish to take control of the North, double taxes and create one army rather than allowing each of the seven Kingdoms to manage their own. She explains the problems likely to arise but in doing so Joffrey realises that she regards the North as enemies. Cersei explain that everyone is a potential enemy other than the family and she seems to be indicating that only she and her son can be trusted. She also counsels him to be nice to his betrothed after he says he hates and does not want to marry her. Later she says he can take as many painted whores or mistresses as he wishes. The girl will provide him with a heir.

Catelyn reaches the city and is surprised and alarmed to be greeted by two member of the city Watch who know who she is and take her to a house used as a brothel when she is met by the Council member who wanted to marry her, times past. Also present is another Council member who explains that his value is information. He wishes to see the knife used on the attack on her and Bran but admits he has no knowledge. The former suitor says that for once he can provide the answer. The knife was his until he lost it during a Tourne event to Tyrion Lannister. In the previous episode when Tyrion’s loyalty was being question by his elder brother he affirms his love of his family. Ned is brought to the location and explains that without proof of what is being said he cannot bring to the attention of the King. Catelyn returns to the North and their parting look suggests that both question whether they will see each other again.

At the Wall, Ned’s brother announces that he is leaving to go out beyond. Tyrion has made friends with the man who brings new recruits and the brother overhears a conversation in which Tyrion appears to be ridiculing the Night Watch. Tyrion explains to the contrary that he is full of admiration for the men but questions the necessity of their function. The brother agrees that the wildings, the people who live in the forest pose no threat although their numbers have been increasing. He fears that the White Walkers have returned as maintained by the member of the Watch beheaded by his brother for desertion. He presses Tyrion to warn the Queen and her husband of the threat and that the force has become inadequate, Reduced to less than 1000 men, a combination of old men and pressed men, amateurs with little or no fighting skills. There is much talk of the coming of Night. In this land seasons lasts for years so that Night can become years of darkness, of recent times lasting on a couple of years but in times past have continued for generations people die from cold, starvation and despair. This story is told Bran by his nurse as he lays in bed, not remembering what happened or frightened to remember and wishing he was dead because his crushed legs means that he will not walk again.

The episode is also interposed with scenes as Daenerys and her brother continue what is obviously a nomadic life. She has become pregnant, is able to communicate with her husband who have now a close loving relationship. She is certain she has a son which pleased him greatly. At one point she orders the column to stop as hey enter an area of tall grass towering above them. She wonders off and is confronted by her brother who is angered that she gave the order to stop without consulting him first. When he handles her roughly a young man appointed for protection seizes the brother wrapping a whip around his throat and choking him, only stopping when ordered to do so by his sister. They continue the journey and the brother is told to walk rather than ride. From the text we learn that for a man to walk rather than ride he is no man at all and that Dany no longer believes her brother will return to the homeland as King. Her pregnancy is confirmed on her fourteenth birthday.

The Winter, the dark is coming, but where from, the Dothraki, the White Walkers of from civil war within the Seven Kingdoms?

The main noteworthy difference between the TV production and the text is that Catelyn arrives in the city by ship rowed by sixty men before the King and her husband return and she mentions the former ward of her father Pyter, known as Littlefinger, who had a crush on her when he was 15 years of age and she 20 and engaged to Ned’s brother before his death, as someone who they should be able to trust. He companion shaves off his whiskers so he will not be recognised as he goes off in search of help after securing accommodation at an Inn outside the Castle walls. When she is woken the next day and ordered to the Castle she knows in advance it is to meet Littlefinger. He brings in the Kings’ spider given a courtesy title of Lord Varys, a eunuch whose function is to provide the monarch with intelligence and he mentions the knife after having overheard her man ask about it to his contact in the city. The rest of this sequence is as before. On arrival there is a description of the city familiar to Catelyn from her childhood and former life there.

The arrival of Eddard is kept closer to the text and I learned that two members of the Council bear the Kings surname; Lord Renly Baratheon master of laws and Lord Stannis Baratheon Master of ships both brothers of the King. Littlefinger has become Lord Baelish. In addition there is the Grand Master Pycelle and Ser Barristan Selmy Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. He is then taken by Littlefinger to meet Catelyn at the out of castle brothel where she brings her husband up todate with events at home and learning about the ownership of the dagger. She in turn has learned of events on the journey and Ned is mortified at the decision to kill the hound finding that it was his son’s creature which saved his life and that of his wife. With the help of Littlefinger he hopes to discover the truth believing that Tyrion would not have acted without the authority of the Queen. He asks his wife to organise defences on land and at sea to cover for all eventualities.