Photo: Stefano Archetti/REX / TT
Sample of authors
Durbridge, Francis
The British crime writer Francis Durbridge was born in Hull in Yorkshire. He was educated at Bradford Grammar School in Bradford, and then at the University of Birmingham where he studied English and Economics and gained a degree in 1933. That same year he succeeded in selling his first radio playscript. He worked for a while at a stockbroking firm but subsequently devoted all his time to...
Literary figures
Fu Manchu
Gender: Male
The satanical, extremely intelligent and powerful gang leader was created by Sax Rohmer (pseudonym for Arthur Henry Ward) and has become something of an icon as regards super criminals – preferably Asians – who aspire to world domination. Fu Manchu has green eyes, a shaved head, long droopy moustaches, and has an arch enemy in British agent Nayland Smith who battles against him with varying suc...