Francis Henry Durbridge (1912-1998) was born in Hull, Yorkshire and educated at Birmingham University. He married Norah Elizabeth Lawley in 1940 and worked in a stockbroker's office before becoming a writer. His best-known books are the Paul Temple series, which began as radio plays before being published on paper. Durbridge was the master of the cliffhanger and one of the most successful writers for television.

Durbridge's first book, Send for Paul Temple (1938), a collaboration with John Thewes, was a novelization of radio serial. Durbridge wrote Temple stories for BBC from 1938 to 1968. The character became hugely popular in Britain and his adventures were followed in many counties, among others in Finland. However, Temple's four film appearances in the 1940s and 1950s are considered insignificant. In the 1960s Durbridge created for TV a new series character, Tim Frazer, starring Jack Hedley. Frazer was an undercover agent and also appeared in three books. Durbridge wrote the series with Clive Exton, Charles Hatton, and Barry Thomas.

In Durbridge's novels usually dialogue dominate, which sometimes reveal that they were originally written for radio or television. His characters belong to the middle-class and have much time to devote themselves in solving crimes - or planning them. The protagonist is sometimes a suspect who tries to free himself from the web of intrigues. In the film The Vicious Circle (1957) an actress is found dead in Dr Latimer's flat and the weapon turn up in the boot of his car. Then another body is found and again all the clues lead to Latimer.

Durbridge published 35 novels, several of them were based on his tv or radio series. Several of his books were written in collaboration with other writers, among them John Thewes, Douglas Rutherford, and Charles Hatton. Paul Temple was credited as the author of his own adventures, two of which Durbridge wrote with Rutherford. The Broken Horseshoe (1952) was Durbridge's first TV thriller serial. It was produced live in a studio at Alexandra Palace. In 1997 Alan Bleasdale created his own version of Durbridge's 1960s BBC serial Melissa, in which a war correspondent, Guy Foster, falls in love with a beautiful but mysterious Melissa. Bleasdale described the mystery detective story as his "homage and tribute to one of this country's finest thriller writers."

Durbridge's main series character was Paul Temple, a novelist-detective, who solves mysteries with his wife Steve. Temple had a thirty-year career on radio, and continued his adventures also in books from 1938 to the late 1980s. Two of Durbridge's novels, The Tyler Mystery and East of Algers list Temple as the author. Another series character was Tim Frazer, undercover agent.

Bibliography

'Paul Temple' Novels

Send for Paul Temple (1938)

Paul Temple and the Front Page Men (1939)

News of Paul Temple (1940)

Paul Temple Intervenes (1944)

Send for Paul Temple Again! (1948)

Paul Temple and the Kelby Affair (1970)

Paul Temple and the Harkdale Robbery (1970)

The Geneva Mystery (1971)

The Curzon Case (1971)

Paul Temple and the Margo Mystery (1986)

Paul Temple and the Madison Case (1988)

'Tim Frazer' Novels

The World of Tim Frazer (1962)

Tim Frazer Again (1964)

Tim Frazer Gets the Message (1978)

Other Novels

Back Room Girl (1950)

Beware of Johnny Washington (1951)

Design for Murder (1951)

The Other Man (1958)

A Time of Day (1959)

The Scarf (1960)

Portrait of Alison (1962)

My Friend Charles (1963)

Another Woman's Shoes (1965)

The Desperate People (1966)

Dead to the World (1967)

My Wife Melissa (1967)

The Pig-Tail Murder (1969)

A Man Called Harry Brent (1970)

Bat out of Hell (1972)

A Game of Murder (1975)

The Passenger (1977)

Breakaway (1981)

The Doll (1982)

As Paul Temple

The Tyler Mystery (with Douglas Rutherford) (1957)

East of Algiers (with Douglas Rutherford) (1959)