Thompson, E. V.

(British, 1931– )

After a career in the police force at home and abroad, E. V. Thompson moved to Cornwall to be a full-time writer. Some of his novels are based on incidents from his own life, like Wychwood (1992), or inspired by his knowledge of Hong Kong, like The Blue-Dress Girl (1992), set in the colony in the 1850s. His Retallick series, beginning with Ben Retallick (1980), follows the fortunes of a family in nineteenth-century Cornwall. Lottie Trago (1990), sixth in the series, tells of lives affected by the closures of the tin-mines. The Tolpuddle Woman (1994) concerns two brothers whose lives are touched by the activities of the rick-burning Captain Swing in the mid-1800s. The author's interest in history shows in the background of his books, but the emphasis is on the everyday lives of the characters as they fall in and out of love.

Winston Graham, R. F. Delderfield FS