,
Colin Watson

Colin Watson’s Followers (26)

member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo

Colin Watson


Born
in Croydon, Surrey, The United Kingdom
February 01, 1920

Died
January 17, 1983

Genre


Colin Watson was educated at the Whitgift School in South Croydon, London. During his career as a journalist he worked in London and Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he was a leader-writer for Kemsley Newspapers.

His book Hopjoy Was Here (1962) received the Silver Dagger Award. He was married, with three children, and lived in Lincolnshire. After retiring from journalism he designed silver jewellery.

As well as a series of humorous detective novels set in the imaginary town of Flaxborough, featuring Inspector Purbright, Watson also wrote and later revised a study of detective stories and thrillers called Snobbery with Violence.

Average rating: 3.95 · 4,733 ratings · 804 reviews · 52 distinct worksSimilar authors
Coffin, Scarcely Used (Flax...

3.68 avg rating — 1,211 ratings — published 1958
Rate this book
Clear rating
Bump in the Night (Flaxboro...

4.04 avg rating — 583 ratings — published 1960 — 20 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Hopjoy Was Here (Flaxboroug...

3.98 avg rating — 467 ratings — published 1962 — 2 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Lonelyheart 4122 (Flaxborou...

4.25 avg rating — 400 ratings — published 1967 — 26 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Charity Ends at Home (Flaxb...

4.06 avg rating — 362 ratings — published 1968 — 15 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Flaxborough Crab (Flaxb...

4.10 avg rating — 269 ratings — published 1969 — 20 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Whatever's Been Going on at...

4.02 avg rating — 259 ratings — published 1982 — 13 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Broomsticks Over Flaxboroug...

3.99 avg rating — 240 ratings — published 1972 — 11 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Naked Nuns (Flaxborough...

3.95 avg rating — 235 ratings — published 1975 — 19 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Plaster Sinners (Flaxboroug...

4.17 avg rating — 187 ratings — published 1980 — 11 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
More books by Colin Watson…
Coffin, Scarcely Used Bump in the Night Hopjoy Was Here Lonelyheart 4122 Charity Ends at Home The Flaxborough Crab Broomsticks Over Flaxborough
(12 books)
by
3.95 avg rating — 4,579 ratings

Quotes by Colin Watson  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“Real life is disobliging. People like to think, or feel, in black and white. Having to assess the relative values of all those intermediate greys is tiresome and perplexing.”
Colin Watson, Snobbery with Violence: English Crime Stories and Their Audience
tags: greys

“Charging commercial institutions with failure to educate public taste is an indulgence from which intellectuals will only be deterred when they grasp that a non-existant contract can be neither breached nor enforced. If commerce is to be indicted for anything, it can only be for commercialism, and whether that is a crime or not is a political question.”
Colin Watson, Snobbery with Violence: English Crime Stories and Their Audience

“To tell the truth, it is regarding the physical side of marriage that I have always been apprehensive...There so seldom seems to be enough of it," said Miss Teatime.”
Colin Watson

Polls

Which classic English Mystery would you like to read with us during August? Please vote here.

 
  43 votes, 48.9%

 
  16 votes, 18.2%

 
  15 votes, 17.0%

 
  14 votes, 15.9%

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics posts views last activity  
Cozy Mysteries : This topic has been closed to new comments. Title and Author Game, Round 2 15570 1187 Mar 21, 2016 04:15PM  
Cozy Mysteries : This topic has been closed to new comments. Mystery ABC's, Round 2 12169 1118 Mar 21, 2016 07:30PM  
2024 Reading Chal...: Elizabeth's 2018 Challenge Log 71 178 Apr 02, 2018 08:39PM  
The Lost Challenges: January Scattergories 40 57 Feb 03, 2019 10:33PM  
Nothing But Readi...: New 2 U authors 2018 127 357 Feb 06, 2019 06:50PM  
The Lost Challenges: January Scavenger Hunt - Chicago 101 77 Feb 11, 2019 06:54PM