Literary Birthday – 29 September – Colin Dexter

Colin Dexter was born 29 September 1930 and died 21 March 2017.

Five Quotes

1. I always write from the beginning to the end, pretty dreadful stuff, really; but you’ve got the scaffolding up. Then I start at the beginning and go over it again.
2. I’ve never believed in writer’s block because my own view about beginning to write is that you shouldn’t think you’re going to write the best first sentence or the best first paragraph. I used to think, I’m probably going to write the worst first sentence ever written.
3. I found if I wrote a page a day, 360 days a year, it soon built up.
4. I think, for me, it’s always been the initial business—just getting a word down, any words down, on a blank piece of paper.  Once I’ve done that, I’m away. Beginning is one half of the deed.
5. Some very fine writers, Phyllis James or Ruth Rendell – their primary concern is to look into the abyss of human consciousness. Good for them; but not for me. For me, it’s the twists and turns of the whodunnit.

Five facts about Colin Dexter

1. Colin Dexter’s first name was Norman.
2. Colin Dexter was a Morse operator during his National Service in the army – but that’s not how Inspector Morse got his name.
3. Like his creation, Colin Dexter loved the music of Wagner, the paintings of Vermeer, the writing of Charles Dickens, and the taste of real ale.
4. In true Hitchcock style, Colin Dexter appeared in all but three Morse episodes. He was “the man in the wheelchair at Magdalen Bridge” and “the man with crutches in the hospital waiting room”. He often appeared at the bar of the pub where Morse was drinking. In 1993 he achieved his ambition and played a small speaking role.
5. Colin Dexter was awarded the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for outstanding services to crime literature in 1997.

Colin Dexter was an English crime writer who was well known for his Inspector Morse novels. These include Last Bus to Woodstock, The Remorseful Day (Inspector Morse), and The Jewel That Was Ours. The novels were adapted as a television series.

Source for image

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