Robert Barnard Explained

Robert Barnard (23 November 1936 – 19 September 2013) was an English crime writer, critic and lecturer.^[1] In addition to over 40 books published under his own name, he also published four books under the pseudonym Bernard Bastable.

Life and work

Robert Barnard was born on 23 November 1936 at Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex. He was educated at the Colchester Royal Grammar School and at Balliol College, Oxford.

He spent five years (1961-1965) as an academic in the English Department at the University of New England, at Armidale, New South Wales, in Australia.^[2]

His first crime novel, Death of an Old Goat, was published in 1974. The novel was written while he was a lecturer at University of Tromsø in Norway. He went on to write more than 40 other books and numerous short stories. As "Bernard Bastable", he published two standalone novels and two alternate history books, featuring Wolfgang Mozart – who had here survived to old age – as a detective.

Barnard was inducted into the prestigious Detection Club in 1991, and was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2003 by the Crime Writers Association for a lifetime of achievement.^[3] He said that his favourite crime writer was Agatha Christie. In 1980 he published a critique of her work titled A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie.

Barnard died on 19 September 2013.^{[3] [4]} He and his wife Louise lived in Yorkshire.

Bibliography

Mystery novels

• Death of an Old Goat (1974)
• A Little Local Murder (1976)
• Death on the High Cs (1977)
• Blood Brotherhood (1977)
• Unruly Son (1978) a.k.a. Death of a Mystery Writer
• Posthumous Papers (1979) a.k.a. Death of a Literary Widow
• Death in a Cold Climate (1980)
• Mother's Boys (1981) a.k.a. Death of a Perfect Mother
• Little Victims (1983) a.k.a. School for Murder
• Out of the Blackout (1984)
• A Corpse in a Gilded Cage (1984)
• Disposal of the Living (1985) a.k.a. Fete Fatale
• Political Suicide (1986)
• The Skeleton in the Grass (1987)
• At Death's Door (1988)
• A City of Strangers (1990)
• A Scandal in Belgravia (1991)
• Masters of the House (1994)
• Touched by the Dead (1999) a.k.a. A Murder in Mayfair
• A Cry From The Dark (2003)
• Dying Flames (2005)
• Last Post (2008)
• Stranger in the Family (2010)

Charlie Peace novels

• Death and the Chaste Apprentice (1989)
• A Fatal Attachment (1992)
• A Hovering of Vultures (1993)
• The Bad Samaritan (1995)
• No Place of Safety (1997)
• The Corpse at the Haworth Tandoori (1998)
• Unholy Dying (2000) a.k.a. Turbulent Priest
• The Bones in the Attic (2001)
• The Mistress of Alderley (2002)
• The Graveyard Position (2004)
• A Fall from Grace (2006)
• The Killings on Jubilee Terrace (2009)
• A Charitable Body (2012)

Perry Trethowan novels

• Death by Sheer Torture (1981)
• Death and the Princess (1982)
• The Missing Bronte (1983)
• Bodies (1986)
• Death in Purple Prose (1987) a.k.a. The Cherry Blossom Corpse

Short story collections

• Death of a Salesperson and Other Untimely Exits (1989)
• The Habit of Widowhood (1996)
• Rogue's Gallery (2011)

Novels written as Bernard Bastable

• To Die Like a Gentleman (1993)
• Dead, Mr. Mozart (1995)
• Mansion and its Murder (1998)
• Too Many Notes, Mr. Mozart (1998)

Non-fiction

• Imagery and Theme in the Novels of Dickens (1974)
• A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie (1980)
• A Short History of English Literature (1984)
• Emily Brontë (British Library Writers' lives series) (2000)
• A Brontë Encyclopedia (with Louise Barnard) (2007)

References

• Ford, Susan Allen. "Stately Homes of England: Robert Barnard's Country House Mysteries" in CLUES: A Journal of Detection 23.4 (Summer 2005): 3–14.

External links

• Internet Book List
• CWA Award Announcement
• 1984 interview with Robert Barnard by Don Swaim at Wired for Books
• 2006 audio interview with Robert Barnard by Elizabeth Foxwell

Notes and References

1. Web site: Mike Ripley . Robert Barnard obituary | Books . 25 September 2013 . theguardian.com . 2013-09-25.
2. Ryan . John . "Just some childish itch to play detective?" Robert Barnard: Armidale's sometime author of detective fiction . Biblionews and Australian Notes & Queries . December 2005 . 31 (4) . 348 . 126–156.
3. Web site: Robert Barnard, winner of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger 2003 . 2013-09-22 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130927141910/http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/2003/cartier.html . 2013-09-27 .
4. Web site: Robert Barnard R.I.P. . 21 September 2013 . 2013-09-22 .