Michael Kenyon

Michael F. Kenyon (26 June 1931 – 29 May 2005) was a British author of crime novels. Author of more than 20 humorous mystery novels, he was one of the first in the field of spoof-espionage story telling, but perhaps better known for the Superintendent O'Malley, and latterly Inspector Henry Peckover series of books. Peckover was especially successful, fondly known as "The Bard Of The Yard". He was also a regular contributor to Gourmet Magazine, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.

Biography

Kenyon was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, in 1931. Educated at Quaker's Schools both in Yorkshire and Berkshire. He served his National Service with the Royal Air Force and afterwards read history at Wadham College, Oxford. He also spent a year at Duke University, North Carolina, on a Rotary Fellowship.

On his return to England, and after many unsuccessful applications to the BBC and up to thirty different newspapers, he finally secured a position as a reporter with the Bristol Evening Post, where he also contributed as Gloucestershire cricket correspondent. After three years and a brief stint with the News Chronicle, he joined the Manchester Guardian.

He met Catherine Bury the daughter of the Very Reverend Phineas Bury (1902-1973) Dean of Cork, at a party. Michael spent many holidays in Ireland and they married in 1961.

While holidaying at Whitegate, Cork Harbour in 1964 he began writing.

His first novel, May You Die in Ireland, was an immediate success. Initially publishing all his crime novels through The Crime Club, and later through Macmillan Publishers, he soon became an established and accomplished writer.

After becoming a visiting lecturer to the University of Illinois, he returned to England briefly before moving to Southampton, New York where he taught in the English Department of Southampton College. He became a United States citizen in 1997.

Kenyon died in 2005 after suffering a heart attack at home in Southampton village.

Novels

May You Die in Ireland (1965)
The Whole Hog (1967)
Out of Season (1968)
Green Grass (1969)
Mr. Big (1975)
Brainbox and Bull (1976)
The Rapist (1977)
Deep Pocket (1978)
The Molehill File (1978)

Superintendent O'Malley Series

Hundred Thousand Welcomes (1970)
Shooting of Dan McGrew (1972)
A Sorry State (1974)

Inspector Peckover Series

Zigzag (1980)
The Man at the Wheel (1982)
A Free-Range Wife (1983)
A Healthy Way to Die (1986)
Peckover Holds the Baby (1988)
Kill the Butler! (1991)
Peckover Joins the Choir (1992)
Peckover and the Bog Man (1994)

Other

A French Affair: A British Family at Home in Southwestern France (1992)

Sources

Wadham College, Oxford. College Alumni Gazette, January 2006 edition.
The Whole Hog - pub. Collins Crime Club 1967 - Sleeve Notes
Bibliography at http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/k/michael-kenyon/
Yale Press http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/FiA/newsletter/kenyon14.html