Ground-breaking biography of the creator of fiction's best loved detective.

The definitive biography of Wilkie Collins: Victorian novelist, playright, author of "The Moonstone" and "The Woman in White "and owner of a secret double life.
In the spring of 1868 Wilkie Collins found himself living a nightmare that could have come straight out of one of his bestselling novels. A visitor to his comfortable London town-house would have found him propped up in bed, desperately dictating the latest chapter of his new book, "The Moonstone." Visible above the bedclothes would have been Wilkie's large, friendly face, framed by straggly whiskers, with its strange bump on the...

Paragon of English virtues or racist imperialist? Andrew Lycett (acclaimed biographer of Ian Fleming) has returned to primary sources to tell the intricate story of a misunderstood genius who became Britain's most famous and highest earning author. Among the many new sources, Lycett has discovered previously unpublished letters that illuminate Kipling's crucial years in India, his first girlfriend (the model for Mrs Hauksbee of Plain Tales from the Hills), his parents' decision to send him back to England to boarding school; and in his adult life his use of opium, his frustrating times...