Simon Brett

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	Photo: © Simon Brett

Biography

Simon Brett was born in Surrey and studied English at Oxford University. He worked as a producer in radio and television for some years, and in 1979 became a full-time writer.

His first published work was a play, Cast in Order of Disappearance (1975), and it has been followed by others, including Silhouette (1998), which toured nationally starring Stephanie Beacham, A Bad Dream (2004) and two pantomimes: The Tale of Little Red Riding Hood (1998), and Sleeping Beauty (1999).  He has also written for radio, including the series No Commitments, Dear Diary, Smelling of Roses and After Henry.

He is perhaps best known for his detective novels, which are in three series: the Charles Paris series, comprising 16 books which include An Amateur Corpse (1978), Murder Unprompted (1992), Corporate Bodies (1999) and Dead Room Farce (1997); the Mrs Pargeter series, which include A Nice Class of Corpse (1986), Mrs Pargeter's Package (1990), Mrs Pargeter's Plot (1996) and Mrs Pargeter's Point of Honour (1998), the eponymous heroine being a widow with a shadowy past; and the Fethering series, set in a fictional village on the south coast of England and including The Body on the Beach (2000), Murder in the Museum (2003) and The Stabbing in the Stables (2006).  The latest book in this series is The Poisoning in the Pub (2009). Other novels include Dead Romantic (1985), adapted for BBC2, and A Shock to the System (1984) which was made into a film, starring Michael Caine. His latest novel is Blotto, Twink and the Ex-King's Daughter (2009), which introduces the brother and sister sleuthing duo Blotto and Twink.

He has edited the Faber Books of Useful Verse (1981), Parodies (1984) and Diaries (1986), and his humorous non-fiction titles include a series of How to be a Little Sod books and The Watepaper Basket Archive (1986).

Simon Brett is a talented speaker, and performer of one-man 'crime in rhyme' dramas, and a former chair of the Crime Writers Association and the Society of Authors. He lives in West Sussex.

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Genres (in alphabetical order)

Crime, Drama

Bibliography

Cast in Order of Disappearance   Heron, 1975

So Much Blood   Gollancz, 1976

Star Trap   Gollancz, 1977

An Amateur Corpse   Gollancz, 1978

A Comedian Dies   Gollancz, 1979

The Dead Side of the Mike   Gollancz, 1980

Situation Tragedy   Gollancz, 1981

The Faber Book of Useful Verse   (editor)   Faber and Faber, 1981

Murder Unprompted   Gollancz, 1982

Murder in the Title   Gollancz, 1983

A Shock to the System   Macmillan, 1984

Not Dead, Only Resting   Gollancz, 1984

The Faber Book of Parodies   (editor)   Faber and Faber, 1984

A Box Of Tricks   Gollancz, 1985

Dead Giveaway   (editor)   Gollancz, 1985

Dead Romantic   Macmillan, 1985

A Nice Class of Corpse   Macmillan, 1986

The Faber Book of Diaries   (editor)   Faber and Faber, 1986

The Three Detectives and the Missing Super Star   Hippo, 1986

The Tree Detectives and the Knight in Armour   Hippo, 1986

The Wastepaper Basket Archive   Sidgwick & Jackson, 1986

After Henry   Viking, 1987

What Bloody Man is That   Gollancz, 1987

Mrs. Presumed Dead   Macmillan, 1988

A Series of Murders   Gollancz, 1989

The Booker Book   Sidgwick & Jackson, 1989

Mrs. Pargeter's Package   Macmillan, 1990

Corporate Bodies   Gollancz, 1991

The Christmas Crimes at Puzzel Manor   Hodder & Stoughton, 1991

How to Be a Little Sod   Gollancz, 1992

Mrs. Pargeter's Pound of Flesh   Macmillan, 1992

A Reconstructed Corpse   Gollancz, 1993

Look Who's Walking   (reprinted as 'Little Sod's Next Step', 1996)   Gollancz, 1994

Murder in Play   Samuel French, 1994

Mr. Quigley's Revenge   Samuel French, 1995

Sicken and So Die   Gollancz, 1995

Singled Out   Macmillan, 1995

Mrs. Pargeter's Plot   Macmillan, 1996

Dead Room Farce   Gollancz, 1997

Not Another Little Sod!   Gollancz, 1997

Crime Writers and Other Animals   Gollancz, 1998

Mrs. Pargeter's Point of Honour   Macmillan, 1998

Silhouette   Samuel French, 1998

The Tale of Little Red Riding Hood   Samuel French, 1998

Sleeping Beauty   Samuel French, 1999

A Crime in Rhyme: and Other Mysterious Fragments   Frith House, 2000

The Body on the Beach   Macmillan, 2000

Death on the Downs   Macmillan, 2001

Putting the Kettle On   Samuel French, 2002

Torso in the Town   Macmillan, 2002

Murder in the Museum   Macmillan, 2003

The Hanging in the Hotel   Macmillan, 2003

The Detection Collection   (editor)   Orion, 2005

The Witness at the Wedding   Macmillan, 2005

The Penultimate Chance Saloon   Toby Press, 2006

The Stabbing in the Stables   Macmillan, 2006

Death under the Dryer   Macmillan, 2007

Blood at the Bookies   Macmillan, 2008

The Poisoning in the Pub   Macmillan, 2009

Blotto, Twink and the Ex-King's Daughter   Constable, 2009

Read about books by Simon Brett at encompassculture.com - the British Council's book database and global online book club

Buy books by Simon Brett at Amazon.co.uk

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Prizes and awards

1986   Edgar Award for Best Novel   (shortlist)   A Shock to the System

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Further reading on this site

Cambridge Seminar
The Cambridge Seminar takes place every two years. It was last held over a week in mid-July 2009. The British Council's Cambridge Seminar on contemporary literature has influenced discussion, performance... more...   (30/06/2003)

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Contact information

Publisher (General enquiries) Pan Macmillan Ltd 20 New Wharf Road London  N1 9RR England Tel: +44 (0)20 7014 6000 Fax: +44 (0)20 7014 6001 http://www.panmacmillan.com

Agent Michael Motley Ltd. The Old Vicarage Tredington Tewkesbury  GL20 7BP Tel: 01684 276390 Fax: 01684 297355

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