Quiller

Quiller is a fictional character created by English novelist Elleston Trevor. Quiller, whose one-word name is a pseudonym, works as a spy, and he is the hero of a series of Cold War thrillers written under the pseudonym "Adam Hall".

The books focus on a solitary, highly capable operative who works, usually on his own, for a British government organization, referred to as "The Bureau", which "doesn't exist". Quiller narrates his adventures in first person, addressing the reader in an informal tone.

Quiller is a highly skilled driver, pilot, diver, linguist and martial artist. In his choice of self-defense methods, he favors Shotokan karate, much like Trevor himself. Additionally, Quiller has knowledge of Chin Na - a related, complementary art focused on advanced joint manipulation. He does not carry a firearm "in peacetime". Indeed, this may mean that he has not carried one since World War II, reasoning that if he were caught, he would be able to explain anything he was carrying except a gun. He also believes that guns give their carriers a dangerously false sense of security, and he dislikes the noise they make. His resistance to interrogation is exceptional and he has managed to keep the "suffix-nine" designation indicating he is "reliable under torture". He has a morbid dislike of dogs, especially guard dogs.

Quiller's narration of the tradecraft skills he routinely employs is one of the defining elements of the novels. Certain other common factors appear. First, he is almost always reluctant to take on a mission and he regularly tells the reader that all Bureau operatives have an option to refuse. Manipulation to get him to agree to the mission is usually necessary. Second, there is nearly always an explosion somewhere in the novel. Third, at least one car chase can be expected. Fourth, in contrast to the glamorous lifestyles depicted in the James Bond canon, Quiller's operational locations are almost always unfriendly (Warsaw in winter, the Sahara Desert under the blazing sun, etc.) and he is aware that his expenses will be scrutinised minutely. His missions are organised under the control of a handler in the field, and a control operating from the bureau in London. A number of these characters recur in the books; some are heartily disliked by Quiller, and he comments on how much he doesn't want to work with them.

His creator summed up Quiller as follows:

About his past there are various rumors: that he was someone in the professional category of lawyer or doctor, denied his license; that he once served a prison term, undeservedly (hence his bitterness, which is never far below the skin); that he is a man on the run who has found a perfect cover in the Bureau. In his forties, he is as fit as an alley cat and his whole makeup is tense, edgy and bitten-eared. Without the imagination to see that life is wide open to any man's need for self-expression, Quiller seems to have to synthesize drama for himself, to invite danger and privation and bitter challenge so that his life can have significance. He needs to live close to the crunch. Like bullfighters and racing drivers, he is a professional neurotic, half in love with death. Obviously antisocial, shy of people and human contact, he is wary of giving anything of himself to others. On rare occasions when the pressures of a mission have forced him into a position where he must consider other people — sometimes a deadly opponent — he reveals compassion, surprising himself. His last will and testament is revealing: "Nothing of value, no dependents, next of kin unknown."

He was named for the real-life Cornish writer Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch.