George Douglas Howard Cole was an English political theorist, economist, writer and historian. As a libertarian socialist he was a long-time member of the Fabian Society and an advocate for the cooperative movement. He and his wife Margaret Cole (1893-1980) together wrote many popular detective stories, featuring the investigators Superintendent Wilson, Everard Blatchington and Dr Tancred. Cole was educated at St Paul's School and Balliol College, Oxford. As a conscientious objector during World War One, Cole's involvement in the campaign against conscription introduced him to a co-worker, Margaret Postgate, whom he married in 1918. The couple both worked for the Fabian Society for the next six years before moving to Oxford, where Cole started writing for the Manchester Guardian. During these years, he also authored several economic and historical works including biographies of William Cobbett and Robert Owen. In 1925, he became reader in economics at University College, Oxford. In 1944, Cole became the first Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at Oxford. He was succeeded in the chair by Isaiah Berlin in 1957.

Matthias McDonnell Bodkin was an Irish nationalist politician and MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Anti-Parnellite representative for North Roscommon, 1892–95, a noted author, journalist and newspaper editor, and barrister, King’s Counsel and County Court Judge for County Clare, 1907-24. Bodkin was a prolific author, in a wide range of genres, including history, novels (contemporary and historical), plays, and political campaigning texts. Bodkin earned a place in the history of the detective novel by virtue of his invention of the first detective family. His most famous character is the detective Paul Beck, who appears in a series of stories and eventually marries another of Bodkin's series characters, Dora Myrl, "Lady Detective".

Lillian de la Torre was an American novelist and a prolific writer of historical mysteries. Her name is a pseudonym for Lillian de la Torre Bueno McCue. Her most popular works were in a series of stories she wrote about Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, under the title 'Dr. Sam: Johnson, Detector'. She also wrote numerous books, short stories for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, reviews for The New York Times Book Review, poetry and plays. She was a President of the Mystery Writers of America.

(1914-1996) Charleston/Kanawha County

Edgar Alfred Jepson (1863 - 1938) was an English writer, principally of mainstream adventure and detective fiction, but also of some supernatural and fantasy stories that are better remembered. He used a pseudonym R. Edison Page for some of his many short stories, collaborating at times with John Gawsworth, Hugh Clevely and possibly Arthur Machen, long-term friends. He was editor for a short period of Vanity Fair magazine, where he employed Richard Middleton, and did much to preserve the latter's memory. He was also a translator, notably of the Arsène Lupin stories of Maurice Leblanc. He was a member of the Square Club (from 1908) of established Edwardian authors, and also one of the more senior of the New Bohemians drinking club. As a literary dynasty: his son Selwyn Jepson was known as a crime writer; his daughter Margaret (married name Birkinshaw) published novels as Margaret Jepson (including Via Panama) and as Pearl Bellairs; and Margaret's daughter Franklin is the writer Fay Weldon. The Jepson domestic arrangements are commented on second-hand in Weldon's autobiographical writing. Jepson was friends with the English mystery writer Hugh Clevely and even shared the same pseudonym "Tod Claymore." They co-wrote the novel "The Man With the Amber Eyes."

Agatha Christie is the top-selling author of all time, with a legacy spanning 66 crime novels, 14 plays, and six romance novels under a pseudonym. Her works have sold over two billion copies globally, translated into at least 103 languages, making her the most translated author. She introduced the world to iconic characters Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple, and wrote *The Mousetrap*, the record-holding longest-running play in modern theater. The youngest in the Miller family, her experience as a nurse during WWI and later roles in pharmacies during both World Wars deeply influenced her mystery novels, often featuring poisons. Christie’s writing career launched in 1920 with *The Mysterious Affair at Styles*. Her life was as captivating as her fiction, notably her 1926 disappearance after her first husband’s affair became public, sparking a nationwide search. Christie's second marriage to archaeologist Max Mallowan enriched her life and work, with travels and homes like the Greenway Estate and Abney Hall providing settings for several novels. Her marriage to Mallowan lasted until her death in 1976. Christie's contributions to literature earned her the title Commander of the Order of the British Empire, solidifying her place in literary history.

Monsignor Ronald Arbuthnott Knox was a Roman Catholic priest, theologian, author of detective stories, as well as a writer and a regular broadcaster for BBC Radio. Knox had attended Eton College and won several scholarships at Balliol College, Oxford. He was ordained an Anglican priest in 1912 and was appointed chaplain of Trinity College, Oxford, but he left in 1917 upon his conversion to Catholicism. In 1918 he was ordained a Catholic priest. Knox wrote many books of essays and novels. Directed by his religious superiors, he re-translated the Latin Vulgate Bible into English, using Hebrew and Greek sources, beginning in 1936. He died on 24 August 1957 and his body was brought to Westminster Cathedral. Bishop Craven celebrated the requiem mass, at which Father Martin D'Arcy, a Jesuit, preached the panegyric. Knox was buried in the churchyard of St Andrew's Church, Mells.