In part because I always envisioned myself doing that kind of work.

And then reality came crashing down around my ears. Most of the people I have met who have been in one alphabet agency or another have not been james bond types, nor even George smiley, but bland, boring unimaginative geeks.

Still, in my teenage years I made quite a habit out of going places where I shouldn’t have been allowed. I got to know the local locksmith pretty well, and garbage picked locks from construction sites to learn to pick them. I still do it, go through doors marked private, cross barrier tape, manipulate people into doing things for me. You can do it to anyone, really; find something someone is interested in and gift them something related to it- people will take things out of your hand with glee and give them places of honor in their homes. And for all they know they could be poison or splodey or whatever. And I have done this with the most tinfoil hatted and suspicious people I know, just to prove to myself that it can be done.

So yes, the spies in Le Carre novels tweak my fancy, because I grew up a wannabe secret agent, and the craft really interests me, but it is still such a shame to find out the reality is so much more boring.