Photo: Quim Llenas/Cover/Getty Images (2006)
Sample of authors
Symons, Julian
Julian Gustave Symons was a British author and critic born in London, where he spent part of his life. His mother was English and his father a Russian Jew, a stern Victorian patriarch who gave his son little or no encouragement. Symons developed such a severe stammer in childhood that he was sent to a succession of state schools for retarded children. He was close to his twelve years older...
Literary figures
Hildegarde Withers
Gender: Female
A tall, angular and determined elderly school mistress – in later books retired school mistress – in New York who solves cases in a suite of cosy detective stories by Stuart Palmer. She often cooperates with Inspector Oscar Piper and lawyer John J. Malone, created by Craig Rice. Hildegarde Withers always wears original hats and has an umbrella with her, collects tropical fish and is a strong opp...