Carl Hamilton | |
---|---|
Carl Hamilton character | |
First appearance | Coq Rouge |
Last appearance | Men inte om det gäller din dotter (But not if it concerns your daughter) |
Created by | Jan Guillou |
Portrayed by |
Stellan Skarsgård Peter Haber Stefan Sauk Peter Stormare Mikael Persbrandt |
Information | |
Gender | Male |
Occupation | Spy |
Nationality | Swedish |
The Carl Hamilton novels are a series of novels by Swedish author Jan Guillou centered on the fictional spy Carl Hamilton. In Sweden and other countries it is a best-selling series. Carl Hamilton has been called "Sweden's James Bond". One commentator said the books "... place [Guillou] besides John le Carre and Len Deighton" (famous British spy novelists).
The first novel Coq Rouge was published in 1986, it was Guillou's first significant work of fiction.
Carl Hamilton was created by author and journalist Jan Guillou after he had been sentenced to prison for espionage – for exposing a secret spy organization inside the Swedish military (see the IB affair). Inspired by Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall, Guillou began to write a spy novel of his own centered on protagonist Carl Hamilton. The series of crime novels resulting out of this first book became a great success in Sweden and was set to film multiple times.
Coq Rouge: berättelsen om en svensk spion (literal: Coq Rouge – the story of a Swedish spy) was published in 1986.
Carl Hamilton was created by Jan Guillou after he had been sentenced to prison for espionage - for exposing an illegal spy organization inside the Swedish military (see the IB affair). His aim with the Hamilton books was to write what he knew about the world of intelligence and counter-intelligence, even though he was forbidden to tell. The codename "Coq Rouge", comes from a chat between Näslund and his Israeli counterpart after a meeting in France between the security services in Europe. Näslund say that Hamilton is as proud as a rooster and a communist. The Israeli then says: "Why don't they call him the red rooster, "coq rouge?". A friend of Guillou, Gabriel Oxenstierna ('Comrade Oxenstierna'), was the inspiration for Hamilton. Oxenstierna was a count and socialist. The reason for the name "Hamilton" is because there are many noble Swedes with the name Hamilton, but only four-five with the name Oxenstierna.