Photo: Ulla Montan
Sample of authors
Dexter, Colin
The British crime writer Colin Dexter grew up in Stamford, Lincolnshire. After completing his military service in 1950, he read classics at Christ's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1953 and receiving an honorary masters degree in 1958. Dexter was a grammar school teacher until 1966, when he started to experience problems with his hearing. He then worked for the University of Oxford Examination...
Literary figures
Emily Pollifax
Gender: Female
Elderly American widow, 60+, bored with tea parties and charity work, who applies for a job as a ‘secret agent’ with the CIA. She is allowed to try and manages it so well that she gets a permanent job and becomes the main character in a suite of novels by Dorothy Gilman. Mrs Emily Pollifax is quick-witted, articulate and has a brown belt in karate. She eventually marries the patient Cyrus Reed.