Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
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Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a spy novel by John le Carré, published in 1974. It is the story of protagonist George Smiley's recalling from retirement to again work for the British Secret Intelligence Service (which the book's characters refer to as "The Circus", for its supposed location at London's Cambridge Circus) to find a mole who has infiltrated the highest levels of the intelligence organization.
The novel's title is from the children's rhyme "Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, richman, poorman, beggarman, thief." Some of the professions mentioned are used as codenames assigned to the four mole-agent suspects: (i) current head of the Circus, Percy Alleline (Tinker), (ii) chief of the London branch, Bill Haydon (Tailor), (iii) another, high-ranking operative, Roy Bland (Soldier), and, (iv) head of internal security, Toby Esterhase (Poorman).
The novel was dramatized as a six-hour television mini-series for the BBC in 1979, starring Alec Guinness as George Smiley.