Silverview

Morning jogs are for the body, evening walks for the soul.

Don’t be bloody silly. We’re out of touch. They’ve got a whole new language. And line managers. And bloody Human Resources instead of a perfectly decent Personnel Department. And focus groups instead of getting on with the job.

The very idea of a consuming passion bewildered him – let alone of allowing one’s life to be conducted by it.

Sometimes the whole of marriage was a cover story.

And when all that was done and dusted, he would ask him frankly, man to man: who are you, Edward - you who have been so many people and pretended to be still others? Who do we find when we've pulled away the layers of disguise? Or were you ever only the sum of your disguises?

A radical’s a radical. Doesn’t matter whether he’s an ex-Communist or an ex anything else. He’s the same chap.

Well, I’m glad somebody is’ – reaching out a long arm and slapping the green-crossed folder on to Battenby’s desk. ‘Because what we’re looking at here is an unparalleled, five-star clusterfuck.

Then, sir, you are Julian Lawndsley, not his portrait, not his shadow, and I for my sins am Edward Avon, like the river. I may be Ted or Teddy to the many, but to my peers I am Edward all alone. How d’you do, Julian?’ – thrusting a hand across the counter, the grip surprisingly powerful, despite the fine fingers.

At ten o’clock of a rainswept morning in London’s West End, a young woman in a baggy anorak, a woollen scarf pulled up around her head, strode resolutely into the storm that was roaring down South Audley Street.

Who do we find when we've pulled away the layers of disguise? Or were you ever only the sum of your disguises?

and deftly winkling a get-to-know-us card from its housing with his long pointy fingers, and holding it to the light to scrutinise the evidence with his own eyes.

it was this Service at its most persuasive that talked a power-mad CIA into turfing out the best leader Iran ever had, and thereby precipitated the whole godawful Revolution.

because, although no kind of alcoholic, she swore she couldn’t cook without a stiff one at the ready.

if they’re into recruiting ex-fanatics. Always remember what they were, because it’s still in ’em somewhere.

don’t know how much you’ve actually seen of the wildcat proposals Deborah’s think-tank was putting out in the run-up to the second Iraq War, have you, Quentin?’ ‘Why?’ asked Battenby, to Proctor’s confusion. ‘It was pretty hair-raising stuff, that’s all. Informed by our best intelligence, but animated by a political perception, one felt, rather than a viable sense of reality. Simultaneous bombing of Islamic capital cities, gifting of Gaza and South Lebanon to Israel, targeted assassination programmes for heads of state, enormous secret armies of international mercenaries under false

Edward Avon, and its official classification is top secret and beyond

Een radicaal is een radicaal. Het maakt niet uit of het een ex-communist is of een ex-wat dan ook. Het is en blijft dezelfde man. Je manier van denken verandert niet omdat die tot een andere conclusie leidt. Je verandert alleen de conclusie. De menselijke natuur. (p.99)