The Tailor of Panama

By John le Carré

First edition, first impression: London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1996. Signed by the author to the title page.

Original quarter grey cloth over purple boards, spine lettered in gilt, with the publisher’s ribbon marker. A few minute spots to the top edge of the text block, otherwise a fine copy in a fine, unclipped pictorial dust jacket, retaining the published price of £16.99.

Set against the approaching handover of the Panama Canal, le Carré’s novel follows Harry Pendel, a gifted tailor whose clientele includes the country’s rich and powerful. Recruited by British intelligence officer Andrew Osnard, Pendel begins supplying information embroidered from gossip, invention and his own fertile imagination. As his fabrications acquire the authority of intelligence, their consequences become increasingly difficult to control.

Combining the momentum of an espionage thriller with dark political comedy, The Tailor of Panama explores the dangerous relationship between storytelling, personal ambition and the intelligence that governments choose to believe. Its tropical setting provides a vivid backdrop to le Carré’s examination of British influence and international intrigue after the Cold War. The novel was adapted into a film in 2001.