principal characters in Fu in Berlin, who previously in The Ipcress File (1962), Dohle, jackdaw, with the addition of the suffix-ish, "Dawlish" suggests the bird's cry and habit of hiding its loot.

Dawlish is a thoroughgoing professional, although some people consider him fussy and dub him "Grannie Dawlish."

Robin James Hallam (aka James J. Hallam, F.R.S.A.) is a Home Office civil servant and homosexual who apparently monitors intelligence activities at Dawlish's W.O.O.C. (P). A member of the Oxbridgian society, he sports a strong upper-class prejudice. After the no-name agent visits him, Hallam thinks of him as "one of Dawlish's little men." A "Secret Service man?" he muses to himself and says, "Upstart."

To Hallam the anonymous agent is an "upstart from Burnley — a supercilious, anti-public-school technician who thought he was an administrator."

Hallam is a snob, but he is not without a...