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
Daniel Calder
Gender: Male
Like his colleague, Samuel Behrens, he is a friendly, elderly gentleman – and one of the most cold-blooded and skilful executioners working for the British counter intelligence service. The two are the main characters in a number of commended short stories – but no novels – by Michael Gilbert. They live in the same village in the county of Kent, and are bachelors, but Calder (who is an expert on w...