This was the blissful break when the world seemed a safer place, between the end of the Cold War and about ten minutes later.

But the first bedtime story he ever did read me was Kim.' River could tell she recognised the title, so didn't elaborate. 'After that, well, Conrad, Greene. Somerset Maugham.''Ashenden.''You get the picture. For my twelfth birthday, he bought me le Carré's collected works. I can still remember what he said about them.'They're made up. But that doesn't mean they're not true.

He and I, we're friends. Does that sound odd? Me, friends with a pinko journalist?'Nothing sounded odd to Lamb; except, perhaps, that people had friends.

Why am I telling you this?''So you'll have an excuse to kill me?''That's probably it.