Photo: Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images (1978)
Sample of authors
Bagley, Desmond
British author of thrillers born in Kendal, Cumbria (formerly Westmorland), in northwest England, an area known as the Lake District. His father was a miner who became ill and moved his family to Blackpool when Bagley was about twelve years old. There he ran a boarding house for actors. Desmond Bagley, who suffered from a bad stutter, left school when he was fourteen and worked in odd jobs at a...
Literary figures
Elma Craggs
Gender: Female
One of the most original problem-solvers in crime literature is Mrs Elma Craggs. She is a cockney and a widow, and has a strenuous and badly-paid job as a cleaning lady. This gains her admittance to various environments. She won’t tolerate any nonsense, and when crimes are committed, she carries out her own investigations with the help of the timid Mrs Millhone. H.R.F. Keating has written a n...