To answer questions about
Slow Horses,
please sign up.
JJ
These answers seem to have missed the significance of the actual place called Slough. Which as well as being drab and miserable is also 24miles away from London. Not actually that far, but far away enough that if one were to work there you’d not be at the beating heart of the action, in MI5 terms. So when Lamb says it’s called Slough House because if you’re there you may as well be in Slough, hes suggesting that not only is it a miserable place to work, but it’s also not where the action is.
James
I think the thing to understand is that Slough, the real town, has a reputation as being a miserable place to go - drab, dreary, boring. Within the novel you get a report of a very brief conversation between two unknown characters in the past, discussing a spy who has been disgraced. I don't have the book to hand, but it's something along the lines of "Where's he been sent? Slough?" "As good as."
So someone suggests that Slough would be a place someone might be sent as punishment... it turns out they haven't been sent to literal Slough, but to a posting just as bad. We're told that, based on this conversation, the nickname 'Slough House', for this particular posting, takes off.
So someone suggests that Slough would be a place someone might be sent as punishment... it turns out they haven't been sent to literal Slough, but to a posting just as bad. We're told that, based on this conversation, the nickname 'Slough House', for this particular posting, takes off.
Jason Daly
And don't forget the meanings of the world "slough" independent of the town. It can mean a swamp, "a situation characterized by a lack of progress or activity" or as a verb "to shed or remove (a layer of dead skin)" or "to get rid of something undesirable" as in "slough off." All these definitions are pretty good metaphors for what has happened to the people at Slough House and/or the place itself.
Oh, and don't forget about the Slough of Despond in The Pilgrim's Progress.
Oh, and don't forget about the Slough of Despond in The Pilgrim's Progress.
Sarah
I refer you also to Betjeman's pre-war poem about the town which begins:
Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now.
which referred to its recent industrialisation and which is such a well-known line that it's become a sort of unfortunate aphorism. (It did get bombed during WW2.) Slough is also the setting for The Office (original British version) for basically the same reason, I suppose.
Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now.
which referred to its recent industrialisation and which is such a well-known line that it's become a sort of unfortunate aphorism. (It did get bombed during WW2.) Slough is also the setting for The Office (original British version) for basically the same reason, I suppose.
Cath Ryan
There is none
There is none
There is none
Hope that helps
There is none
There is none
Hope that helps
Steve Auerbach
what happens to slow horses... not just that they are sent out to pasture... its that they are sent to the glue factory.
Jerôme
Homonym 'slow' as in 'Slough'.
These persons in Slough House are going nowhere fast.
These persons in Slough House are going nowhere fast.
Ruth Anne
It's clearly described in the beginning of the book. The workers there have been removed from active ops for one mistake or another, but can't be/won't be fired and continue to draw pay. Collectively, they're known as "slow horses" and the place they're exiled to is therefore known as "Slough (pronounced slow) House." It's a pun.
It has nothing to do with a place called Slough.
It has nothing to do with a place called Slough.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more