H. R. F. Keating

H. R. F. Keating, known as Harry to his family and friends, was born in St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, in 1926. He was educated at Merchant Taylors School in London and Trinity College, Dublin, before training as a journalist. As well as publihing over sixty books in his lifetime, Keating was the crime fiction reviewer for The Times for fifteen years and held many prestigious roles, including Chairman of the Society of Authors and President of the Detection Club.

Keating's first novel about Inspector Ghote, The Perfect Murder, won the Gold Dagger of the Crime Writers Association and an Edgar Allen Poe Special Award, and was later made into a film by Merchant Ivory. He subsequently won many more awards, including the CWA's Cartier Diamond Dagger for outstanding services to crime literature. He lived in London with his wife, the actor Sheila Mitchell, until his death in 2011, aged eighty-four.