Wolf, the systematic spymaster who never came in from the cold

THE timing was ironic on many fronts. He died in his sleep, 17 years to the day after the Berlin Wall came down.

He died in a week when Irish poster sites were dominated by photographs of the new actor to take on the role of a spy named Bond, James Bond.

His death forced writer John le Carré, to deny, yet again, that he had based a key character in his Cold War espionage novels — Karla, the spymaster — on him.