Innes, Michael

(British, 1906–94)

J. I. M. Stewart, who wrote under the name Michael Innes, was born in Edinburgh and educated at Oxford, where he taught English during his academic career. Begin with Death at the President's Lodging (1936), set in a traditional English university, in which Inspector John Appleby, the urbane detective who dominates Innes's crime fiction, first appears. Later stories include The Long Farewell (1958), which finds Appleby in Italy. Now knighted and retired, he investigates the apparent suicide of a visiting Shakespearian scholar. J. I. M. Stewart also published novels under his own name, the best five of which make up the series A Staircase in Surrey. This academic comedy of manners follows the life and loves of Duncan Patullo at his Oxford college through The Gaudy (1974) and Young Patullo (1975) to Full Term (1978).

Dorothy L. Sayers, Malcolm

Bradbury  DH