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Jul 14, 2021Liked by Daniel Lavery

Based on this prose, it seems there's a class that's "gentlemanly soft," which is valid in British spy fiction, and "pansy types," which aren't. The More You Know!

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This makes me think of every time Peter Guillam is referred to as "Smiley's cupbearer", or the description of him from "The Honourable Schoolboy": "Guillam is tall and tough and graceful, and probationers awaiting first posting tend to look up to him as some sort of Greek god."

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A gentleman named D'Arcy is automatically homosexual, any further description is just gilding the lily.

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