Photo: Francesco Da Vinci/Getty Images (c.1992)
Sample of authors
Gardner, John (f. 1926)
John Edmund Gardner was a British novelist. He was born in the village of Seaton Delaval in Northumberland as the son of a clergyman. He briefly attended Cottham’s Preparatory School in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1931, and after the family had moved to Wantage in Berkshire in 1933, King Alfred’s School 1934–1943. He joined the Home Guard at the start of the Second World War and in 1943 the Royal Marin...
Literary figures
Wilkins
Gender: Male
An English Chief Inspector without a first name, in three amusing puzzle solver crime pastiches by James Anderson. Inspector Wilkins is middle aged, short and a bit wide around the waist. He has a heavy, black moustache, a deep voice and, most of the time, a troubled look. He speaks Russian and French, reads Dostoyevsky, solves The Times’ crossword-puzzle during breakfast, as well as murder c...