The Character of the Lady Ann

Ann and George met post WW II at the Circus, where she was a secretary (I want to say she was Controls secretary, but my memory is fuzzy). I believe in one of the Smiley books that she says the attraction for her was the he was “clever”.

I think that a whole chapter of the first Smiley novel, Call for the Dead, is devoted to George meeting and marrying Ann, at the great surprise of their friends. From what I remember, she did work for the Circus as a secretary - a bit like Connie Sachs, but younger, she was a lady from a wealthy and influent family introduced in the Service by her background. I think she was the secretary of George's old mentor: not Control but an elderly gentleman who had recruited him right after college. Ann and George spent a lot of time together at the office. He proposed to her, she accepted and they went travelling a lot. Then troubles began...
I love their relationship. It's sad, original, yet very believable.


" You ain't running this place, Bert, WILLIAMS is!" Sgt Harris

I haven't read the books, so my impressions are formed by her portrayal in the series, and extrapolation of my knowledge of the faith of the English landed gentry. So, I may be wrong...

But the "landed gentry" got their incomes from the land they owned. And owning land turned from assets to liabilites in the begninning of the 20th century, when the incomes began to be heavily taxated. There was a concentration and accumulation of assets, where smaller estates went bankrupt because their diminishing incomes couldn't pay the vast expenses of keeping such estates. Selling land to pay expenses means even smaller returns, and so on and so forth.

And larger and better prepared estates became even larger and better prepared, buying up the smaller ones going bust. A large manor house without land is just a money pit. Some of them were torn down, sold, or given away. Some became schools or nursing homes. This was the trend for most of the 20th century, up until some thirty years ago when the trend turned. And nowadays, those bankrupt estates would be worth tens and tens of millions of pounds.

But it seems Lady Ann is living on such an estate, Brideshead Revisited-style. Usually, the first son inherits the entire estate as a whole, and if he's a good son, he'll see to the rest of the family. The second son usually had to look elsewhere for a career, and the usual career path was the civil service or as an officer in the military. The third son usually had to go the colonies to make a fortune of their own. The daughters were married off and thus someone elses problem.

So, it may be true that the family had some connections with the military/intelligence, and that's why Lady Ann ended up as a secretary at MI5. It's not implausible at all, on the contrary. It seems very logical and true to form. But as it is her brother that runs the estate, she doesn't have any means by herself but her own income. Perhaps she's given an allowance by her brother, but we don't know anything about that. For her personal expenses, she's dependent on her own income, and married to George, by his income.

And the estate seems to have seen better days. What should they do to keep up expenses? Sell another Gainsborough? It may be a large estate, but the incomes seems meager. That means, her brother may own a wealth, but it's a wealth that can't be capitalized. They are short of cash, so to speak, it's a cash/flow problem. So, perhaps her brother just don't have that much cash to give her, if she would need some?

Though, I'd suspect that their large terraced house in London is bought by her means, or at least by her brothers. It's definitely bought on her insistance, I don't think George would care about such things. He's the most happy in his study in the basement anyway. He could never afford such accomodations on his salary, not even in those days. Being separated, she stays at the manor house, probably rent free, and indefinitely.

And that's the thing. Even if they belong together, he doesn't belong in her world. They may love each other, but they come from separate classes. And George doesn't seem comfortable with her way of life. When he's visiting her, they go for a walk, because he can't stand even being in the house for longer than necessary. Going for a walk in the woods, they are on equal grounds.

It's such a beautiful but sad tale. So very very sad...

In Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Smiley recounts his previous encounter with Karla, in which he approached Karla — on his way home to imminent arrest and execution — and invited him to defect to the West. In the course of the interview, Smiley had offered him a carton of cigarettes and took out the lighter in case he wanted to light up. Karla said not a word during the interview, but he left with the cigarettes, and stole Anne’s lighter as well.

She's symbolic of the boss class he works for.

Marlon, Claudia & Dimby the cats 1989-2010. Clio the cat, July 1997 - 1 May 2016.