Charlie Muffin — Brian Freemantle

Charlie Muffin is an oddity - an over-tired, over-drawn, over-hung, middle-aged anachronism. To himself, a survivor. To others, an irritant. To the army colonel, Charlie, with his crumpled suits and leaking shoes, is the final inherited embarrassment from a disgraced department he is committed to revitalise. Who better, then, to sacrifice in the capture of a KGB general who is masterminding the Soviet Union's European spy net from behind the counter of his London wine importers business? So upon one man settle the hopes of East and West. All Charlie hopes to do is survive. On his own terms, of course.