"The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" (1963) was a huge success because Kim Philby defected in 1963, and 1961 had seen the Maclean and Burgess defections, so Le Carré was on the wave of these huge political incidents.
If it wins two imminent byelections caused by Tory defections (Clacton, and Rochester and Strood), it will go into the campaign on a roll and, probably, as the third biggest party in the polls.
Last year he capitulated to avoid the risk of what he called a "death spiral" of defections.
Since the March 8 general elections when the ruling coalition suffered badly, reducing the government's grip on power, Anwar has launched a campaign to topple the government, which has a thin 30-seat majority in the 222-member parliament, with ongoing defections.
As Tory sources played down the prospect of further defections by Conservative MPs after Mark Reckless won Ukip's second seat with a majority of 2,920, the prime minister said another victory for Nigel Farage's party in May would only help the Labour party.
Ukraine's problems are compounded by the fact that many men under arms are ethnic Russians, though analysts have thus far played down the prospect of mutinies or defections, arguing that ethnicity in the Ukrainian army is not as powerful an idea as it was in the Balkans for example.
Even against a backdrop of ministerial resignations and backbench defections to Ukip, Osborne thinks he can trump that with the message that you can't trust Labour with the economy.
We believe a buffer zone, which includes a no-fly zone, would triple if not quadruple the number of defections, which really speeds up the process of ending the regime.
Anwar, a former deputy prime minister, was triumphant, confidently predicting that defections would mean his coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, would be in government by September 16 (the date when independent Malaya enlarged to become Malaysia in 1963).
Conservative chief whip Michael Gove has hit back at Ukip claims that two MPs are on the verge of joining Nigel Farage, saying he is "absolutely 100%" sure there will be no more defections in the wake of the Rochester & Strood byelection.
As recent defections by Ukip's rising stars show even Ukip's supporters are finding harder and harder to stomach the party's relentless and base-less anti-foreigner rhetoric.
