The Tailor of Panama is one of John le Carré’s sharpest and most satirical espionage novels, marking a tonal shift from the moral austerity of his Cold War work toward a darker, more comic exposure of intelligence excess and political cynicism.
 
Set in Panama during the final years of Manuel Noriega’s regime, the novel centres on Harry Pendel, a disreputable British tailor with a talent for storytelling and embellishment. When he is recruited as an informant by an ambitious MI6 operative, Pendel invents a network of resistance figures and intelligence sources—fabrications that British intelligence eagerly accepts because they align with political expectations.
 
As Pendel’s lies spiral into geopolitical consequences, le Carré delivers a biting critique of intelligence culture, imperial nostalgia, and the dangers of self-deception within Western power structures. The novel was later adapted into a major film starring Pierce Brosnan and Geoffrey Rush.