Considered by many as the founder of the crime novel, William
Wilkie Collins (1824–89) was, unlike many nineteenth-century
writers, a great literary success within his own lifetime. At one
stage he rose to be the highest-paid Victorian writer, even
eclipsing the earnings of his mentor, Charles Dickens. He had
several careers in his youth, but it was writing novels that
brought him fame, boosted by a certain notoriety for what many
perceived as his scandalous and immoral private life.
Judith John (glossary) is a writer and editor specializing
in literature and history. A former secondary school English
Language and Literature teacher, she has subsequently worked as an
editor on major educational projects, including English A:
Literature for the Pearson International Baccalaureate series.
Judith’s major research interests include Romantic and Gothic
literature, and Renaissance drama.
Martin Edwards (biography) is the author of eighteen novels,
including the Lake District Mysteries, and the Harry Devlin series.
His ground-breaking genre study The Golden Age of Murder has won
the Edgar, Agatha, and H.R.F. Keating awards. He has edited twenty
eight crime anthologies, has won the CWA Short Story Dagger and the
CWA Margery Allingham Prize, and is series consultant for the
British Library’s Crime Classics. In 2015, he was elected eighth
President of the Detection Club, an office previously held by G.K.
Chesterton, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers.
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