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
Annie Laurance (Darling)
Gender: Female
When she is suspected of murder, Annie Laurance – who runs a mystery book store in a fictional town in South Carolina – needs to prove her innocence. She continues to solve crime in a string of cosy whodunits by Carolyn Hart. She is assisted by her boyfriend, the private detective Max Darling, whom she marries in the fourth book and changes her surname to Darling.