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circus_cupbearerSource: David Monaghan. Smiley's Circus: A secret guide to the world of John le Carré. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986. Print. pp. 89-91.
Guillam, Peter A lifetime involvement with the Circus begins for Guillam during the Second World War when he serves with Leamas in Norway and joins Haydon in a parachute drop into Greece. By the 1950s he has developed into an expert on Satellite (Eastern European countries) espionage and is able to provide Smiley with considerable information on the Abteilung and its methods during the investigation into the murder of Samuel F ennan in 1959 (or 1960). Fennan’s murderer, Hans-Dieter Mundt, actually falls into Gui1lam’s hands but, rather than bring him to justice, he turns him into a double agent and then connives in his escape. Some time in 1960 (or 1961) Guillam travels to Ankara but the purpose of this visit to Turkey is not known. In 1961 healso plays a minor role in the Fiedler-Mundt Operation aimed at protecting Hans-Dieter Mundt.
After 1962 Guillam develops networks in French North Africa, but these are blown in 1965. He then returns to England and is sent almost immediately to Berne where he works with Esterhase in an operation directed against two Belgian arms dealers. After this Guillam runs home-based operations including the recruitment of Polish, Soviet and Chinese seamen. Prideaux’s capture by Soviet forces in Czechoslovakia during Operation Testify in October 1972 leaves a vacancy as head scalphunter which Guillam is assigned to fill. After only one year in this position he assists Smiley in the investigations which result in the identification of Bill Haydon as the traitor in the Circus ranks. The reorganization which follows sees Guillam elevated to the fifth floor for the first time in his career, and he works closely with Smiley throughout Operation Dolphin. However, things turn out poorly for Guillam at the end of the case. He suffers a broken collar-bone as a consequence of a fight with Jerry Westerby and, with Enderby’s accession to power, he is exiled once again to Brixton, the sCalphunter headquarters in South London. Two more years as head scalphunter are followed by a posting to Paris as head (legal) resident at the Embassy, a position usually reserved for burnt-out agents. Whether this is a fair judgement of Guillam’s abilities is questionable in light of the speed, courage and ingenuity he reveals in October 1978 while trying to rescue his wife from what he thinks is a kidnapping attempt. This incident brings him into contact once again with his old chief, Smiley, whom he assists in the concealment of Ostrakova from Soviet assassins. In the Course of his career in espionage Guillam uses the cover names Lampton, Will, Lofthouse, Andrew Forbes-Lisle and Gordon.
Guillam’s origins shape him for a career in espionage. His father, a French businessman and Arabist, spies for a Circus réseau (network) during the Second World War and his mother, who is English, works in coding. As a result Guillam develops only a limited life beyond the Circus. Somewhere along the way he manages to become an expert on landscape gardening, but most of his free time is dedicated to his cars, always Porsches, and his girlfriends. The most notable of these are Camilla, a music student with whom he lives for a while at his flat in Eaton Place, London, during 1973, and Molly Meakin, a fellow intelligence officer, with whom he conducts a passionate affair throughout Operation Dolphin. Guillam does not marry until 1978, and then it is to a young French woman called Marie-Claire. They live in an apartment in the Neuilly district of Paris and expect their first child in March 1979.
Guillam is tall, powerful, handsome and graceful and always dresses elegantly. In 1973, for example, he sports a silk umbrella with a stitched leather handle and a gold ring. His most notable feature, however, is his apparent agelessness. In 1962 Liz Gold judges him to be about forty and so does Smiley in 1973. Unfortunately, accompanying this eternal youth is a perpetual immaturity. Guillam’s notions of espionage are romantic and chivalric ones and he takes as his model of excellence the apparently heroic figure of Bill Haydon. Experience teaches Guillam little and, although he feels he has grown up after discovering that Haydon is a traitor, there is little evidence that he really changes. During Operation Dolphin he commits himself wholeheartedly to Smiley’s cause but reveals throughout a lack of sound judgement and a good deal of impetuosity. His choice of a supremely silly child-bride suggests that in his private life, too, Guillam continues to be motivated by a spirit of chivalry rather than mature judgement. (CD; SC; TT; HS; SP)
Bonus: description of Marie-Claire Guillam from the same book, p. 89:
Guillam, Marie-Claire Wife of Peter Guillam. The exact date of their marriage is not known but their relationship begins presumably after his posting to Paris in 1977. She is expecting a baby in March 1979. Marie-Claire is young and rather silly. Her major ambitions are maternal and these embrace Guillam as much as the forthcoming baby — she keeps a stock of invalid foods against the day when he will satisfy her dreams by falling ill. If her notepaper with its grazing bunnies is anything to go by she also has dreadful taste. (SP)
