Chesterton, G(ilbert) K(eith)

(British, 1874–1936)

Born in London, after studying art Chesterton embarked early on his career as a prolific journalist and author. Begin by meeting Father Brown, Chesterton's unassumingly philosophical Catholic priest-detective. Among the five collections of his exploits are The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) and The Scandal of Father Brown (1935). These vivid and charmingly witty stories have an understated seriousness reflecting Chesterton's abiding concern with good and evil. His technique of postponing the culprit's identification until the concluding revelation was widely imitated in subsequent detective fiction. His novels include The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), a satirical fantasy envisioning London's future return to a feudal basis for society, and The Man Who was Thursday (1908), a high-spirited response to Edwardian fears of disorder that centres on a complex anarchist conspiracy.

Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers  DH