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Writers

Here are some writers and bloggers I love

 Golden Age of crime

My all-time favourite detective, perhaps unsurprisingly, is Lord Peter Wimsey, as written by Dorothy L. Sayers. But the model for the Queen and Rozie’s relationship is really that between Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin in the novels by Rex Stout. Nero stays in his brownstone, with his orchids, while Archie paces the streets of New York, much as Rozie heads out from Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace to follow up the leads the Queen has spotted.

Modern Crime Writers

Here are just a few of my favourite crime and thriller writers working today. From the warm relationships of Three Pines, captured by Louise Penny, to the underhand dealings in the late British Raj in the novels by Abir Mukerjee, to Donna Leon’s Venice and Janice Hallett’s cleverly-constructed British stories, I’m in awe of what my fellow writers can do.

Spy & Thriller

I grew up with the Cold War worlds of Len Deighton and John Le Carre. They were very real to me as I lived in Cold War Berlin as a teenager, where the Wall ran round the bottom of our garden and the Russians practised their drills on the other side. The Queen knew Dick Francis first as a jockey and then as a writer. She loved his page-turning thrillers, set in the racing world. Mick Herron is the master of the modern spy novel, with their satirical take on contemporary politics. I love them all.

Funny Writers

Royal biographers and bloggers