Talk:Colonel Charles Russell
info from the books as I read them
In book 21, The Mischief Makers, no longer smokes, still drinks, and still has a mustache; hopes Willy Smith will take over the Executive
In book 2, Venetian Blind lots of stuff:
Russell has said he will retire in six months. No one in his department really qualified to succeed him. the Home Secretary (who IS a Minister), Gabriel Palliser, says that Russell "was something special. He had it both ways: he ran the machine, and ran it beautifully -- the files, the dossiers, the interminable cross-checking. All that is essential, it's nine-tenths of the job, and it wouldn't be difficult to find a man to carry it. But it's the other tenth, nowadays, that counts in the pinches, and for that Russell had a flair. A nose. He smelt things...Colonel Russell is... something exceptional. He has a nose for the suspect but he detests suspicion; he's a humanist, a liberal in the oldest, best sense... you can't trust many when it comes to that sort of power." pages 12-13
Russell's room: untidyness; Benares brass and silver trophies; excellent Persian rugs; admirably attended mustache; soldierly but slightly donnish == page 34
Still smokes a pipe (54) and cigarettes when offered (60): champagne didn't agree with him... but he seldom declined it -- page 54
Says he's "an indifferent bridge player" (61)
has sherry and biscuits for lunch when too busy to go out (63)
"He was a churchgoer by mild conviction, but not a moralist." His vicar is a High Churchman. (64)
"I'm sixty" page 123
In book 3, The Arena (novel), he belongs to Bratt's Club, page 68, which gets a mention in Slow Burner but no description
In book 4, The Unquiet Sleep, he has "bright blue eyes", page 70
He is pleased that he can "remember a little Latin" from Martial, page 71
He is an "Anglo-Irishman", page 71, with "a decoration he had won in battle", page 72
Now he's "rising sixty" again, page 151
Gabriel Palliser, Russell's Minister, is in the 6th book, The Antagonists, and also the 3rd or 4th, as I recall
does he really get two articles?
Does he really get two articles, one with his real name and one with his pen name? Just curious!Pat Palmer (talk) 04:23, 10 October 2020 (UTC)
- not at all. William Haggard is the name of the author. Colonel Charles Russell is his lead character. Just like Raymond Chandler and Philip Marlowe. Hayford Peirce (talk) 14:32, 10 October 2020 (UTC)
- Oops! Sorry to misunderstand. I will reread.Pat Palmer (talk) 00:59, 11 October 2020 (UTC)
- Even Great Homer nods, as the saying goes, hehe....Hayford Peirce (talk) 01:11, 11 October 2020 (UTC)
- But I imagine that having his picture there in the Russell article might confuse things for a cursory glance. And, of course, I would imagine that Colonel Russell is probably as close a fictional creation to his author's life and personality as exists in this kind of fiction. Dashiell Hammett had been an actual detective, so maybe some of HIS characters mimicked him, but Philip Marlowe would just be a dream in Chandler's head....Hayford Peirce (talk) 01:16, 11 October 2020 (UTC)