WRITER

Julian Symons

1912 - 1994

Julian Symons

Julian Gustave Symons (originally Gustave Julian Symons, pronounced SIMM-ons; 30 May 1912 – 19 November 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Julian Symons has received more than 103,682 page views. His biography is available in 15 different languages on Wikipedia. Julian Symons is the 5,768th most popular writer, the 4,510th most popular biography from United Kingdom and the 508th most popular British Writer.

Memorability Metrics

100k
Page Views (PV)
45.03
Historical Popularity Index (HPI)
15
Languages Editions (L)
3.96
Effective Languages (L*)
2.26
Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

The detective story in Britain

Detective and mystery stories, English fiction, History and criticism

> "Mr. Julian Symons, in this concise and beguiling retrospective view of the British detective story, divides his subject into 'The Begetters', 'Sherlock Holmes', 'The Great Detective', 'Fair Play and the Revolt against It', and, towards the end of his survey, he introduces a monitory note under the heading 'The Weakening Form'. Mr. Symons's select bibliography includes most of the greater writers in the genre, but he has modestly refrained from emphasising his own works such as *The Colour of Murder* and *The Progress of a Crime*, which received awards as the best crime novels of 1957 and 1960 respectively. Mr. Symons has also written on the General Strike of 1926, on the Thirties and on that astonishing figure Horatio Bottomley."

1962

A Bundle for the Toff

Private investigators, Toff (Fictitious character), Fiction

1963

The Belting Inheritance

Fiction, mystery & detective, general, Fiction / General, Fiction, general

> When Christopher Barrington was twelve, he came to live at Belting, stately home of his great-aunt, Lady Wainwright. It was a frightening house to a nervous boy, who was there only because his parents were dead. Lady Wainwright had disapproved of Christopher's mother marrying his father (a film director), but she took the boy in, partly because her two adored sons, Hugh and David, had been lost in the war. She had two surviving sons, to be sure, Christopher's Uncle Miles and Uncle Stephen, but they weren't the sons she had loved. >Christopher grew up as a poor relation and as an audience. Then, when he was almost a man grown, and his great-aunt was dying, word came that David had apparently *not* died in the war - he had survived, but he had never let anyone at Belting know. >Was it *really* David who was returning to solace his dying mother in her last hours? Or was it an impostor come to claim the inheritance, to rob Miles and Stephen - and even Christopher - the old lady's fortune? >And why, when the man turned up who was or was not David (it was so hard to be sure), was Thorne, the elderly family retainer, shot to death? >Christopher, deeply enmeshed in the family puzzle, tries to find out the truth, and runs into some strange situations and stranger people.

1965

Color of Murder

Detective and mystery stories, Fiction, mystery & detective, general, Mystery

Kirkus Reviews - "The detective novel for a change and a most able job, this two-part dissection is first focussed on the accused as he reveals himself to the consulting psychiatrist, then on his trial and its ramifications. John Wilkins has blackouts, is unhappily married, recognizes his fantasy life in his romantic dreaming about Sheila, a local librarian, is upset about his work. A rising silk takes the defense, Wilkins' family hires a private detective, the trial produces damaging witnesses for Wilkins' murder of Sheila, and the finale is a double-play of ingenuity. British -- and of the best."

1957

Gideon's lot

Fiction, George Gideon (Fictitious character), Police

1964

The creepers

Fiction, Police, Roger West (Fictitious character)

1950