Philip McAlpine is an agent for CI-6.
Readers of spy fiction in England during the mid-to-late 60's were treated to an interesting media blitz welcoming this newest writer in the genre and his 'pro-hash anti-hero' spy. In a climate where youth was king (as if it has changed any over the years) the arrival of a young, hip spy to take on the establishment-oriented James Bond was a marketing department's dream.
The fact that the author was also a young, hip guy who was also quite photogenic helped matters greatly. The publisher started a marketing campaign featuring the handsome, mod-dressed writer surrounded by mini-skirted nubile ladies, each adoringly looking at him as he looked totally with-it.
The anti-hero of this four-book series is a young man named Philip McAlpine who had the misfortune of meeting the needs of the head of a small agency in the large British alphabet-soup Intelligence community. The group was known as CI-6, although the CI was usually omitted. There was an omnipresent suffix of '(NC/NAC)' which indicated that it's area of responsibility was 'non-communist, non-aligned countries'.
In keeping with the anti-hero aspect, McAlpine never wanted to become a spy - he was extorted into his profession with a promise of considerable money if he joins and prison time if he doesn't. He doesn't enjoy his forced profession and constantly admits that he is above all else afraid for his life. Still, he does manage to handle the cases and stay alive somehow.
According to the author, who was 22 when he wrote the first and 26 on the last one, he started them for fun and stopped when he grew bored with it.