Plot
Protagonist is perhaps too strong a word to describe Colonel Russell. As Haggard himself wrote about his fiction:
My novels are chiefly novels of suspense with a background of international politics. A Colonel Charles Russell of the Security Executive, a not entirely imaginary British counter-espionage organization, while not a protagonist in the technical sense, holds the story line together in the background by his operations, while the characters in the foreground carry the action." [1]
As usual with Haggard's books, there are subplots within subplots, but the main theme is a simple one: one of the world's most brilliant scientists, Alexander Gorgan, has been ordered by the President of his native country (unnamed but clearly Yugoslavia) to deliver an address to an eminent group of scientists in London. He is the world's greatest expert in microwaves, which have become vital in the development of anti-ballistic missile defenses. It is a political decision: there are mounting tensions within his country between different groups of Communists, and the Soviets (also unnamed, but clearly identified) are trying to interfere in an unhelpful way. Gorgan is a prize that any of the factions would like to seize (or simply kill), so England, which enjoys friendly relations with Gorgan's President, is seen as being a sanctuary for weeks or even months. And Gorgan's masters have confidence that the Special Branch and Colonel Russell's Security Executive together will be able to secure his safety. Gorgan, however, although a relatively young, hard-living bon vivante, also has a serious neurological issue and he collapses immediately upon arrival in England and is rushed to a private hospital in the countryside where he will spend weeks in fitful recuperation. Seizing this unexpected opportunity, one of the factions immediately makes an attempt on his life but is thwarted by the Security Executive. And now another unforeseen faction appears: Americans, who are nominal allies of the English. Rather than wanting to kill him, at least one of them, an Embassy diplomat and multi-millionaire, merely wants to brainwash him and drain him of his knowledge of microwaves. But Colonel Russell, now aided by the timely reappearance of his "invaluable" aide Major Mortimer from earlier books, enlists the help of James Scobell, [2] an American semi-colleague who clearly works for the unnamed CIA, and with Mortimer and Scobell consulting closely, he arranges an elaborate rescue of Gorgan from a kidnapping contrived to deliver him clandestinely to Russia. At the very end of the book Russell and his ministerial master from earlier books, Gabriel Palliser, are discussing what to do with Gorgan, now arranged by the Yugoslavs to be in England for a long period of time. Sir William Banner, the prominent industrialist from the previous High Wire, is proposed as being a possible patron. Russell agrees but says firmly: "We mustn't cheat." And the Minister replies: "We mustn't be caught out cheating."
Harry Palmer is the anti-hero protagonist of a number of films based on the unnamed main character, a secret agent, in the spy novels written by Len Deighton. Michael Caine played Harry Palmer in three of the four films based on the four published novels featuring this character, The Ipcress File (1965), Funeral in Berlin (1966) and Billion Dollar Brain (1967). Caine also starred as this character in two other films not directly based on Deighton's novels.
Funeral in Berlin is a 1964 spy novel by Len Deighton set between Saturday October 5 and Sunday November 10, 1963. It was the third of four novels about an unnamed British agent. It was preceded by The IPCRESS File (1962) and Horse Under Water (1963), and followed by Billion-Dollar Brain (1966).
Sir Henry Rider Haggard was an English writer of adventure fiction romances set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a pioneer of the lost world literary genre. He was also involved in land reform throughout the British Empire. His stories, situated at the lighter end of Victorian literature, continue to be popular and influential.
A protagonist is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a story contains a subplot, or is a narrative made up of several stories, then each subplot may have its own protagonist.
Manning Coles was the pseudonym of two British writers, Adelaide Frances Oke Manning (1891–1959) and Cyril Henry Coles (1899–1965), who wrote many spy thrillers from the early 1940s through the early 1960s. The fictional protagonist in 26 of their books was Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon, who works for a department of the Foreign Office, usually referred to in the novels as "MI5".
Allan Quatermain is the protagonist of H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines, its one sequel Allan Quatermain (1887), twelve prequel novels and four prequel short stories, totalling eighteen works. An English professional big game hunter and adventurer, in film and television he has been portrayed by Richard Chamberlain, Sean Connery, Cedric Hardwicke, Patrick Swayze and Stewart Granger among others.
William Haggard was the pseudonym of Richard Henry Michael Clayton, the son of the Rev. Henry James Clayton and Mabel Sarah Clayton. He was an English writer of fictional spy thrillers set in the 1960s through the 1980s, or, as the writer H. R. F. Keating called them, "action novels of international power." Like C. P. Snow, he was a quintessentially British Establishment figure who had been a civil servant in India, and his books vigorously put forth his perhaps idiosyncratic points of view. The principle character in most of his novels is the urbane Colonel Charles Russell of the fictional Security Executive,, who moves easily and gracefully along Snow's Corridors of Power in Whitehall. During the years of the fictional spy mania initially begun by the James Bond stories, Haggard was considered by most critics to be at the very top of the field.
The Serb Volunteer Guard, also known as Arkan's Tigers or Arkan's men, was a Serbian volunteer paramilitary unit founded and led by Arkan that fought in Croatia (1991–93) and Bosnia (1992–95) during the Yugoslav Wars.
Journey into Fear is a 1940 spy thriller novel by Eric Ambler. Film adaptations were released in 1943 and 1975.
Christopher Rodonanté Cwej, usually just known as Chris Cwej, is a fictional character from the Virgin New Adventures range of spin-offs based on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. His surname is properly pronounced "Shvay", but he pronounces it "Kwedge" rather than keep correcting people.
The Covert-One series is a sequence of thriller novels written by several authors after the death of Robert Ludlum, presumably according to some of his ideas. The books feature a team of political and technical experts, belonging to a top-secret U.S. agency called Covert-One, who fight corruption, conspiracy, and bioweaponry at the highest levels of society.
Circus is a novel written by the Scottish author Alistair MacLean. It was first released in the United Kingdom by Collins in 1975 and later in the same year by Doubleday in the United States.
Ron Terpening is an American writer, professor of Italian, and editor. Though he started his writing career as an author of young-adult fiction, where the father/son conflict is a major theme, he is best known for his later novels of suspense, most of which are set, at least in part, in Italy, reflecting his academic background as a scholar of Italian culture. His thriller League of Shadows, for example, deals with the Fascist Era in Italy and its aftermath in the contemporary world. A later international thriller, Nine Days in October, came out of the author's course research on the forces of order and disorder in contemporary Italy and follows a band of criminals and ex-terrorists as they attempt to carry out an assassination plot. All of his novels, including Storm Track and Tropic of Fear, the latter set in Paraguay, are noted for their strong sense of place. In most of his novels, his protagonist is usually a common man placed in a situation where powerful forces are arrayed against him.
Memoirs of an Invisible Man is a 1987 science fiction novel by H. F. Saint.
The Wizard is a novel by Henry Rider Haggard, first published by Longmans, Green, and Co., in 1896. The Wizard is one of the many examples of imperialist literature. According to Rebecca Stott, author of the article “The Dark Continent: Africa as Female Body in Haggard’s Adventure Fiction,” Haggard's fiction is still popular today and attempts to expose a “cultural and historical definition of white masculinity at its most rugged and its most terrified.”
Slow Burner is a 1958 suspense novel by the British author William Haggard published in England by Cassell and in the United States by Little Brown. It was Haggard's first novel and the first of many involving his protagonist Colonel Charles Russell, the head of the urbane unobtrusive but lethal Security Executive, a government counter-intelligence agency clearly based on the actual MI5 or Security Service, who moves easily and gracefully along C.P. Snow's Corridors of Power in Whitehall. Like most of the other works by Haggard and some by his near contemporaries Victor Canning and Michael Gilbert, it is both a standard novel of suspense and a semi-political thriller about the reactions of those in high government positions who scent potential danger to their own political standing from the on-going events of the novel.
Venetian Blind is a 1959 suspense novel by the British author William Haggard published in England by Cassell and in the United States by Ives Washburn. It was Haggard's second of 21 books involving his urbane protagonist Colonel Charles Russell, the head of the unobtrusive but lethal Security Executive, a government counter-intelligence agency clearly based on the actual MI5 or Security Service, where he moves easily and gracefully along C.P. Snow's Corridors of Power in Whitehall. Like all of Haggard's books it has standard elements of suspense thrillers but in addition there is an almost Henry Jamiesian exposition of British establishment mores and character, in both the government and in the world of upper-class financiers, scientists, industrialists, their families, and hangers-on, making it very much a novel of character.
The Arena is a 1961 suspense novel by the British author William Haggard published in England by Cassell and in the United States by Washburn. It was Haggard's third of 21 books involving his urbane protagonist Colonel Charles Russell, the head of the unobtrusive but lethal Security Executive, a government counter-intelligence agency clearly based on the actual MI5 or Security Service, where he moves easily and gracefully along C.P. Snow's Corridors of Power in Whitehall. Like all of the other works by Haggard it is a standard novel of suspense, but combined, as usual with Haggard, with other elements: the reactions of those in high government positions who fear non-political events that could endanger Britain's place in the world, along with a tough-minded, even cynical depiction of financial shenanigans in the City of London. And like Venetian Blind, Haggard's previous book, it is very much a novel of character, albeit a bleak one.
The Unquiet Sleep is a 1962 suspense novel by British author William Haggard which was published in England by Cassell and in the United States by Ives Washburn. It is the 4th novel in a series of 21 books that involve urbane protagonist, Colonel Charles Russell. Russel is the head of the Security Executive, a government counterintelligence agency based on the actual MI5 or Security Service. He moves easily and gracefully along C.P. Snow's Corridors of Power in Whitehall. As in Haggard's earlier books, it has the standard elements of a suspense thriller along with detailed examinations of character, but with more scenes of direct action and somewhat less dissection of character and motivation from the first three books.
