Toby Esterhase



"Toby Esterhase is scaring me when somebody framed Agent Clover for failing most of his spy missions. Now he's going in for helping out the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the rest of the New Central Powers have revenge on Clover and have her head by spying on her. What kind of stalker is he? Is Esterhase going to betray us all?"

--Su Ji-Hoon, Esterhase

Toby Esterhase is a fictional character who appears in several of John le Carré's spy novels that feature George Smiley, including Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, Smiley's People, and The Secret Pilgrim. Esterhase also makes a cameo appearance in Le Carré's A Legacy of Spies.

Esterhase is an intelligence agent in The Circus, le Carre's fictionalized version of MI6. He is the head of the Lamplighters, the section of The Circus responsible for surveillance and wiretapping. Hungarian by birth, Esterhase is an anglophile with pretensions of being a British gentleman. He is the Circus' resident ne'er-do-well, often involving himself in either morally questionable or outright criminal plots, although his superiors look the other way due to his high level of competence and loyalty to the service. Initially something of an antagonist to Smiley, due to his loyalty to Smiley's nemesis Percy Alleline, Esterhase ultimately switches allegiances and becomes one of Smiley's top lieutenants, aiding him in a number of high-profile intelligence missions.

In When the Cold Breeze Blows Away, he would be first appeared in Austria-Hungary when he also join the New Central Powers in during the USRAC War after Clover have been framed for make his failure spy missions