History Trivia / TheQuestForKarla

* WriteWhoYouKnow: Creator/JohnLeCarre partially based George Smiley on his friend, the Reverend Vivian Green, a Lincoln College tutor and Oxford University don, as well as his boss at MI5, Lord Clanmorris, who wrote crime novels under the pseudonym of John Bingham.

** He also thinks ''The Honourable Schoolboy'' would have been better off without Karla and Smiley's involvement.

* CreatorBacklash: In the prefaces to the republished novels, Creator/JohnLeCarre argues that Smiley had outlived his potential as a character by the end of ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', in large part because of real-life changes in the political climate.

** Creator/JohnLeCarre had originally planned several novels involving Smiley and Karla (ten or twelve according to his prefaces to later editions of ''Tinker Tailor''), one of which would have been set in the Middle East. This one was scrapped when le Carre couldn't figure out how to fit Smiley in that setting; part of the story and research le Carre had planned here would later end up in his novel ''The Little Drummer Girl''.
** Creator/JudiDench was supposed to play Madame Ostrakova in the TV version, but wasn't available.

** Creator/JohnLeCarre had originally planned several novels involving Smiley and Karla, one of which would have been set in the Middle East. This one was scrapped when le Carre couldn't figure out how to fit Smiley in that setting; part of the story and research le Carre had planned here would later end up in his novel ''The Little Drummer Girl''.

* CreatorBacklash: In the prefaces to the republished novels, le Carré argues that Smiley had outlived his potential as a character by the end of ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', in large part because of real-life changes in the political climate.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Le Carre had originally planned several novels involving Smiley and Karla, one of which would have been set in the Middle East. This one was scrapped when le Carre couldn't figure out how to fit Smiley in that setting; part of the story and research le Carre had planned here would later end up in his novel ''The Little Drummer Girl''.

* CreatorBacklash: In the prefaces to the republished novels, le Carré argues that Smiley had outlived his potential as a character by the end of ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,'' in large part because of real-life changes in the political climate.
%%* ReferencedBy: [[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers The Daily Telegraph]] has published several volumes of obituaries. One is called ''Thinker, Failure, Soldier, Jailer''. %%is there any evidence this is a reference to the novel, rather than to the same poem that the novel's title is a reference to?

* ReferencedBy: [[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers The Daily Telegraph]] has published several volumes of obituaries. One is called ''Thinker, Failure, Soldier, Jailer''.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Le Carre had originally planned several novels involving Smiley and Karla, one of which would have been set in the Middle East. This one was scrapped when le Carre couldn't figure out how to fit Smiley in that setting; part of the story and research le Carre had planned here would later end up in his novel ''The Little Drummer Girl''.