The Honourable Schoolboy
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The Honourable Schoolboy, published in 1977, is the second novel of the Karla Trilogy, written by spy author John Le Carré. Although George Smiley has a major supporting role, the protagonist is the Honourable Jerry Westerby, Esq., a newspaper reporter, and some-time British spy, who was a minor character in the novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and was played by Joss Ackland, in the 1979 BBC television miniseries.
Following his discovery of the mole in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, George Smiley is Chief of the battered "Circus" (i.e., the British Secret Intelligence Service). Not only must Smiley rebuild the Circus, but he must launch an offensive operation - which eventually leads to a Southeast-Asian money-laundering operation pointing to Karla, Smiley's KGB counterpart. Smiley dispatches secret agent Jerry Westerby, the "Honourable Schoolboy", to Hong Kong. There, undercover journalist Westerby finds the links between Karla and Chinese brothers Drake and Nelson Ko as well as Drake Ko's blonde, English mistress, Lizzie Worthington; Westerby's infatuation with Lizzie threatens the operation and its conclusion.
Jonathan Powell, producer of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, has stated that the BBC considered producing The Honourable Schoolboy but decided not to do so due to the prohibitive cost of the extensive South East Asian location filming required. Therefore the BBC moved directly on to the third novel of the Karla Trilogy Smiley's People, which was broadcast in 1982.
In a foreward to a later edition of The Honourable Schoolboy, John Le Carré stated that the story might have worked better had George Smiley been omitted, since, he felt, Smiley's appearances in the novel detracted from the protagonist, the Honourable Jerry Westerby, Esq.