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Portrait of Desmond Bagley Photo: Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images (1978)

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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...

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Literary figures

Joseph French

Gender: Male

With patience, thorough and determined routine work, Detective Inspector Joseph French of Scotland Yard has broken a long row of false alibis and exposed a similarly long row of murderers. He is short in stature, well-built, likes to wear tweeds and is a typical English gentleman. He spends his free time with his wife (they don’t have any children) and likes to potter – like his creator F. Wills C...

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