The Secret Pilgrim takes place in the British intelligence community that le Carre has included in most of his earlier work. It is more clearly linked to his earlier work than The Russia House (1989) because of the inclusion of George Smiley, who appears prominently in earlier novels, most notably the "Smiley trilogy" of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974), in which Smiley unmasks a Soviet agent working in a high position for British intelligence, an event that is discussed in The Secret Pilgrim; The Honourable Schoolboy (1977), in which Smiley helps the British intelligence community recover from the chaos created by the enemy agent; and Smiley's People (1980), in which Smiley pursues his archenemy, the Soviet master spy Karla.