Simon Brett
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Simon Brett (born 28 October 1945 in Worcester Park, Surrey, England) is a prolific writer of whodunnits. Brett worked for BBC Radio and London Weekend Television before becoming a full-time writer in the late 1970s. He is married with three children and lives in the South of England. He is the current president of the Detection Club.
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[edit] Radio and television career
While with the BBC, Brett produced the first ever episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as well as many episodes of cult comedy series The Burkiss Way, comedy series I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and comedy panel game Just a Minute. Moving into television, Brett was responsible for producing End of Part One and the television revival of The Glums for LWT.
More recently, he has become an accomplished sitcom writer, most notably with BBC Radio 4's After Henry and No Commitments and Smelling of Roses. After Henry was later produced on television for ITV.
Brett has written three series of detective novels (listed below). He has also written non-series novels, of which A Shock to the System (1984) is probably best known due to the filmed version starring Michael Caine as the business executive who takes revenge after being passed over for promotion. All these series are unusual in the attention Brett gives to the interpersonal relationships of women, often considered rare for a male writer to do.
[edit] Series
[edit] Charles Paris
Charles Paris is an unhappily separated (but not divorced, more than 30 years on), moderately successful actor with a slight drinking problem who gets entangled in all sorts of crimes, and finds himself in the role of unwilling amateur detective. There are seventeen novels featuring this character:
- Cast, In Order of Disappearance (1975)
- So Much Blood (1976)
- Star Trap (1977)
- An Amateur Corpse (1978)
- A Comedian Dies (1979)
- The Dead Side of the Mike (1980)
- Situation Tragedy (1981)
- Murder Unprompted (1982)
- Murder in the Title (1983)
- Not Dead, Only Resting (1984)
- Dead Giveaway (1985)
- What Bloody Man Is That? (1987)
- A Series of Murders (1989)
- Corporate Bodies (1991)
- A Reconstructed Corpse (1993)
- Sicken and So Die (1995)
- Dead Room Farce (1998)
Cast, In Order of Disappearance and So Much Blood were both adapted for Radio 2 with Francis Matthews in the lead role in the 1980s.
Sicken and So Die has been adapted for radio by Jeremy Front, starring Bill Nighy as Charles Paris. It was |broadcast as a four part series on BBC Radio 4 in 2006. A number of years ago, So Much Blood was also serialized; it was replayed in 2006 on BBC Radio 7. In addition, A Series of Murders was adapted for the Saturday Play slot in the early 2000s, along with another adaptation of So Much Blood, recorded on location at its Edinburgh Fringe setting.
[edit] Mrs Pargeter
Mrs Pargeter is a widow with a shadowy past who, with a little help from her dead husband's friends, is able to solve uncanny mysteries. The Mrs Pargeter novels include:
- A Nice Class of Corpse (1986)
- Mrs, Presumed Dead (1988)
- Mrs Pargeter's Package (1990)
- Mrs Pargeter's Pound of Flesh (1992)
- Mrs Pargeter's Plot (1996)
- Mrs Pargeter's Point of Honour (1999)
[edit] Fethering
Fethering is a fictitious village on England's south coast (next to Tarring). It is the place of residence of amateur sleuths Carole Seddon, a retired civil servant and her neighbour, Jude Nichols, whose origins are obscure. Eight Fethering mysteries have been published so far, with the ninth due in March 2008:
- The Body on the Beach (2000)
- Death on the Downs (2001)
- The Torso in the Town (2002)
- Murder in the Museum (2003)
- The Hanging in the Hotel (2004)
- The Witness at the Wedding (2005)
- The Stabbing in the Stables (2006)
- Death Under the Dryer (2007)
- Blood at the Bookies (2008)
- Shooting at the Spa (2009)
[edit] Plays
- Murder in Play (1994)
- Mr Quigley's Revenge (1995)
- Silhouette (1998)
- The Tale of Little Red Riding Hood (1998)
- Sleeping Beauty (1999)
- Putting the Kettle on (2002)
- A Bad Dream (2005)
