Britannia of Billingsgate

The Crooked Hearts

John Colin Watson (1 February 1920 – 18 January 1983) was a British writer of detective fiction and the creator of characters such as Inspector Purbright and Lucilla Teatime. Born in Croydon, Surrey, he is best remembered for the twelve Flaxborough novels, typified by their comic and dry wit and set in a fictional small town in England which is closely based on Boston, Lincolnshire.  He worked as a journalist in Lincolnshire and the characters in his books are said to be highly recognisable caricatures of people he encountered in his work.
His 1971 study of interwar thrillers, Snobbery With Violence, made the phrase popular for describing such authors as Dornford Yates. He was inducted into the Detection Club in 1970.
Watson was the first person to successfully sue Private Eye for libel, for an article in issue 25 when he objected to being described as: “the little-known author who . . . was writing a novel, very Wodehouse but without the jokes”. He was awarded £750. He died in Folkingham, Lincolnshire in 1983.

Colin Watson

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Britannia of Billingsgate