Julian Gustave Symons (originally Gustave Julian Symons, pronounced SIMM-ons; 30 May 1912 – 19 November 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature. He was born in Clapham, London, and died in Walmer, Kent.

Life and work

Julian Symons was born in London to auctioneer Morris Albert Symons (died 1929), of Russian-Polish Jewish immigrant parentage, and Minnie Louise (died 1964), née Bull. He was a younger brother, and later the biographer, of writer A. J. A. Symons. Like his brother, due to the family's straitened financial circumstances, he left school at 14, having attended a "school for backward children" owing to his severe stutter. He was subsequently mainly self-educated, whilst working as a typist and clerk for an engineering firm. He founded the poetry magazine Twentieth Century Verse in 1937, editing it for two years. His crime writing in the 1930s was incidental; later he became a major crime writer; by using irony, he pointed out the violence hidden in everyday life. His writing advanced beyond the mystery genre. He was a Trotskyist and sought status as a conscientious objector in World War II, but was refused by his tribunal. He served in the Royal Armoured Corps 1942 to 1944, when he was invalided out with a non-battle-related arm injury. After a period as an advertising copywriter, he became a full-time writer in 1947. During his career, he won two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America and, in 1982, received the MWA's Grand Master Award. Symons served as the president of the Detection Club from 1976 till 1985. Symons's 1972 book Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel (published as Mortal Consequences in the US) is one of the best-known critical works in the field of crime fiction. Revised editions were published in 1985, 1992 and finally in 1994. Symons highlighted the distinction between the classic puzzler mystery, associated with such writers as Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr, and the more modern "crime novel," which puts emphasis on psychology and motivation. Symons published over thirty crime novels and story collections between 1945 and 1994. His works combined elements of both the detective story and the crime novel, but leaned clearly toward the latter, with an emphasis on character and psychology which anticipated later crime fiction writers such as Ruth Rendell and P.D. James. His novels tend to focus on ordinary people drawn into a murderous chain of events; the intricate plots are often spiced with black humour. Novels typical of his style include The Colour of Murder (1957), the Edgar-winning The Progress of a Crime (1960), The Man Whose Dreams Came True (1968) The Man Who Lost His Wife (1970) and The Plot Against Roger Ryder (1973). Symons wrote two modern-day Sherlock Holmes pastiches, as well as a pastiche set in the 1920s. In A Three-Pipe Problem (1975), the detective was "...a television actor, Sheridan Hayes, who wears the mask of Sherlock Holmes and assumes his character. The book neatly reversed the usual theme of the criminal behind the mask by having a rather commonplace man wearing the mask of the great detective." A sequel The Kentish Manor Murders was written in 1988. For his 1981 book The Great Detectives, he wrote a Sherlock Holmes pastiche instead of a biographical sketch. Entitled "How a Hermit was Disturbed in His Retirement," the events of the tale take place in the 1920s as Sherlock Holmes is drawn out of retirement to solve an unusual missing persons case. The story was included in the collection The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, in which it was given the more Doylean title of "The Adventure of Hillerman Hall." He also made occasional forays into historical mystery, such as The Blackheath Poisonings (1978), which was filmed for television in 1992, and with Sweet Adelaide (1980). In 1941, Symons married Kathleen Clark; they had a daughter Sarah and a son, Mark. Symons died at his home at Walmer, in Kent, and was survived by his widow and son.

Works

Crime fiction

Inspector Bland

Inspector Crambo

Sheridan Haynes

Joan Khan-Harper

Other novels

Collected short crime fiction

Francis Quarles

Other collections

Biography, history and literary criticism

Edited collections

Short stories and novellas

Poetry

Volumes Individual poems

Uncollected fiction

Uncollected non-fiction