Photo: Ulf Andersen/Getty Images (1986)
Sample of authors
Deighton, Len
The British author Len Deighton was born as Leonard Cyril Deighton in London. His father was a chauffeur; his mother worked in a hotel kitchen. He was a boy when he helped his father as a volunteer during the London Blitz. After leaving school he worked briefly as a railway clerk, and at the age of seventeen he joined the Royal Air Force Special Investigation Branch as a photographer. He then...
Literary figures
Gendarmerichef Laviolette
Gender: Male
Laviolette works as the head of the gendarmerie in Provence at the beginning of the 20th century. When readers meet him for the first time, he is investigating a strange case where people have died after using an aphrodisiac, and in which his 17-year-old son turns out to be involved. Pierre Magnan only wrote one more novel about the head of the gendarmerie, but he did write a whole series about...