Colonel Charles Russell

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Revision as of 20:58, 21 September 2020 by imported>Hayford Peirce (added some more)
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William Haggard on the back cover of The Conspirators, 1967
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Colonel Charles Edward Russell, generally known as Colonel Russell, is an Anglo-Irish British army officer created by the British thriller writer William Haggard who, after World War II, becomes head of an unobtrusive but occasionally lethal British counter-intelligence agency called the Security Executive. The Executive figures in 25 novels featuring Russell and in several others in which Russell is not a character. Haggard himself, who had served at least for a while as an Intelligence Officer during the War, called it "not entirely imaginary". Russell is presented throughout the series as an "unapologetic" Establishment conservative but, perhaps because of his part-Irish heritage, is far from being a racist: in at least one of his books, he hopes that a Black "operator" of the Executive, William Wilberforce Smith, will become its head.

In book 1, Slow Burner, Russell' height is mentioned somewhere; he has "an abundant mustache"; he drinks whisky and soda before lunch; plays golf; smokes a pipe.

In book 21, The Mischief Makers, no longer smokes, still drinks, and still has a mustache; hopes Willy Smith will take over the Executive