WISDOM OF FATHER BROWN

Gilbert Keith Chesterton joined the Illustrated London News in 1905 under instruction to write a weekly column of interest about anything except politics and religion. Of course he ignored the advice and was an immediate hit and continued to write his weekly essay for the next 31 years. 'He writes beautifully, in fully formed sentences that are funny, companionable, empathetic and inclusive. His wit is as sharp as Oscar Wilde's.' His first published novel was The Napoleon of Notting Hill 1904 and success continued and a further 12 stories were published as The Wisdom of Father Brown in 1914. This second collection is reproduced here and contains all of the intrigue to be expected as Chesterton's beloved amateur sleuth continues to use his innate understanding of human nature to solve mystery after mystery. The character of Father Brown was loosely based on John O'Conner, a Catholic curate whom Chesterton met on a walking holiday in Yorkshire in 1903. Chesterton was struck by his apparent innocence in worldly matters, though he possessed a deep knowledge of the human condition through the confessional, the antithesis of Sherlock Holmes, another famous detective of that era. For Father Brown, criminals were not evil, they were simply good men gone wrong. This collection of classics features The Absence of Mr Glass, The Duel of Mr Hirsch, The Mistake of the Machine, The Head of Caesar, The Purple Wig, The Perishing of the Pendragons, The God of the Gongs and The Fairy Tale of Father Brown among the 12 short stories. New full price paperback, 220pp.