George Douglas Howard Cole and Margaret Cole were a husband and wife team responsible for twenty-eight detective fiction novels and four short story collections. Although the books are jointly credited, it seems they took turns to write each book, as opposed to collaborating on each one. The exact authorship of each particular book has not, so far as I am aware, been established. George, born on 25 September 1889, was an eminent scholar, having studied at St Paul's School, London and
later at Balliol College, Oxford. He was a noted left-wing economist and wrote extensively
on the subject. Given the nature of the site, however, we shall confine ourselves to the criminous
output.
Their work was consistent, although not particularly outstanding when compared to
some other authors of the period.
The popularity of the Coles today owes much to the fact that the majority of their early work was published by Collins under the Crime Club imprint, benefitting also from some very attractive dust wrapper artwork. |
© R.D. Collins 2004