What le Carré is so good at is unpicking something very specific about Englishness. That is almost part of why I think he wrote the novel. You can feel le Carré's anger that someone who has had the benefits of an English education and an English upbringing is using that privilege to basically do the worst things imaginable. There is an anger in the book about that.

I feel so grateful to my mother and father for a happy childhood. There are things I now understand that they were able to give me that are very special.

I feel as though the cardboard box of my own reality has been flattened and blown open. Now I can see the edge of the world.

Do the work, enjoy the work, take it seriously, don't take yourself seriously and keep your head down!

You never know what's around the corner. It could be everything. Or it could be nothing. You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you've climbed a mountain.

I think a healthy connection with the natural world actually makes us more human.

South Sudan is the youngest nation on the planet.