Robert Bruce Montgomery (1921-1978) (who wrote under the pseudonym Edmund Crispin) was a British crime writer and composer. He graduated from St John's College, Oxford in 1943, with a BA in modern languages, having for two years been its organist and choirmaster. From 1943 to 1945 he taught at Shrewsbury School. In addition to his writing, he composed music, including for the Carry On films, and critiqued detective fiction for the Sunday Times. He died on September 15 1978
His novels feature the Oxford don Gervase Fen, who is professor of English language and literature at the university and fellow of St Christopher's College, a fictional institution that Crispin locates next to St John's College. Fen is an eccentric, sometimes absent-minded, character reportedly based on the Oxford professor W.E. Moore. The novels are written in a humorous, sometimes farcical style.
Books
- The Case of the Gilded Fly (1944)
- Holy Disorder (1945)
- The Moving Toyshop (1946) was dedicated to Crispin's great friend Philip Larkin.
- Swan Song (1947)
- Love Lies Bleeding (1948)
- Buried for Pleasure (1948)
- Frequent Hearses (1950)
- The Long Divorce (1952)
- Beware of the Trains (1953) (short story collection)
- Glimpses of the Moon (1977)
- Fen Country (1979) (short story collection, published posthumously)
Crispin also edited seven volumes entitled Best Science Fiction,
which were published
during the 1960s.
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