Through five internationally acclaimed, best-selling books, Len Deighton never named his protagonist. It wasn’t until the movie version of his debut novel, “The IPCRESS File,” that his hero — more accurately, anti-hero — was identified as Harry Palmer, because it was “the most boring name” for a spy. The thick square glasses worn by Michael Caine, who played Palmer in the films, accentuated his unremarkable, everyman status.

Deighton, who died last week at 97, was my favorite spy novelist. You can have James Bond or George Smiley; I would much rather spend my time with Palmer, an insolent, sarcastic, sometimes reluctant hero, who slogged through assignments for WOOC(P), a British Intelligence unit that is also unnamed, though the P seems to stand for Provisional. The seedy anonymity of its offices reminds me of “Slough House” in Mick Herron’s spy-novel series of the same name, upon which the popular HBO series “Slow Horses” is based, although WOOC(P)’s staff is the exact opposite of its failures and burnouts.

Palmer was the very antithesis of those superspies. While he shared their frustration with and contempt for colleagues and their respect for adversaries, Deighton’s men spent more time filling out forms than shooting guns and drove dumpy cars rather than subsonic phallic substitutes. As Deighton’s New York Times obituary noted, his “central character is self-consciously proletarian, with a jaded, frequently hostile attitude toward his superiors, a droll sense of humor and a love of cooking.” The humor is subtle and ever-present. (We’ll come back to the cooking.)

© The Japan Times