Bob Sullivan is a reporter for a major British newspaper.
He is about as veteran a reporter as you can get outside of retirement age, having been, it seemed, everywhere and witnessed everything and written about it enough to make his reputation solid in Fleet Street.
There is never any desire on his part to get involved in the shady world of espionage and cloak and dagger and foreign intrigue. He just likes a good story and has the doggedness to not let a little thing like danger stand in the way of a scoop. The same could be said of government officials and others who often do not want him snooping where they are playing. The trouble with a good newshound, though, is that the more one tries to dissuade such a reporter, the more likely that reporter will become determined enough to risk life and limb.
Sullivan is 37 years old at the beginning of the series but he feels and acts even older. He comments to a colleague about having 'half' a child which, coupled with other facts learned elsewhere, would indicate he has an unnamed offspring but without custody. He is divorced after six years of marriage to an American. He makes reference to having left his Irish roots behind him but it is uncertain what exactly that means.
His age in the subsequent books is unknown as there is nothing to determine time between adventures. Certainly his love of excitement does not waver for in the beginning of the third book he rescues a young woman from two inebriated sailors, presenting a bluff that is not called and feeling both relieved and disappointed that there was not more involved.
This flair for action shows up in his eagerness to push his way into a story and to laugh off any suggestions otherwise. Neither editor bosses nor high ranking political figures can sway his snooping. Nor can bullets flying, though these he is less insolent about.