For the purpose of his marvellous crime fiction Colin Watson invented a town called Flaxborough, located somewhere in the east of England, superficially bland and conservative, but concealing devious depths – there to be uncovered by the diligent local Detective Inspector Walter Purbright. Critic H.R.F. Keating argued that Watson’s Flaxborough merited comparison with ‘the creation […]

Meira Chand is of Indian-Swiss parentage, was born and educated in London, lived for many years in Japan with her Indian husband, and now resides in Singapore. Her multi-cultural heritage, married to her remarkable literary gift for storytelling drawn from history, help to explain why she has been hailed by Publishers Weekly as the ‘master of the […]

‘After I had run away from school, no one knew what to do with me …’ Born in Shanghai in 1915, son of a wealthy rubber merchant, Denton Welch was dispatched to an English boarding school after his mother’s death. There he suffered, and soon absconded, forcing his father to bring him back to Shanghai […]