Now this is a fascinating book indeed. Fowler looks at 99 authors who were once hugely popular, but have all but disappeared from our shelves. There’s Leslier Charteris, whose English stiff-upper lipped hero “The Saint” (Simon Templar) was the world’s greatest thief – but used his powers against despots and villains. Not that this stopped the police from forever trying to put him behind bars. As well as about 100 Saint books, the spinoffs included comic strips, and even Vincent Price playing the character on radio in the 1940s. And of course later, Roger Moore featured in the TV series. It was all huge – but who reads The Saint now? And what do Percy Howard Newby, Bernice Rubens, J.G. Farrell, Stanley Middleton have in common, apart from writing fiction? They were all winners of the Booker Prize – one of the most illustrious awards of all. But do you remember them? And on and on – it’s a wonderful exploration of now neglected writers who were once on everyone’s lips.
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