Julian Gustave Symons (originally Gustave Julian Symons, pronounced SIMM-ons; 30 May 1912 – 19 November 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature. He was born in Clapham, London, and died in Walmer, Kent.
Born~Died May 30, 1912 ~ Nov 19, 1994Last edited Oct 15, 2026, 5:18 PM
Details
Born ~ Died
May 30, 1912 ~ Nov 19, 1994
Born
Gustave Julian Symons, (1912-05-30)30 May 1912, Clapham, London, England
Died
19 November 1994(1994-11-19) (aged 82), Walmer, Kent, England
Julian Gustave Symons (originally Gustave Julian Symons, pronounced SIMM-ons;1 30 May 1912 – 19 November 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature. He was born in Clapham, London, and died in Walmer, Kent.
Life and work
Julian Symons was born in London to auctioneer Morris Albert Symons (died 1929), of Russian-Polish Jewish immigrant parentage, and Minnie Louise (died 1964), née Bull.2 He was a younger brother, and later the biographer, of writer A. J. A. Symons. Like his brother, due to the family's straitened financial circumstances, he left school at 14, having attended a "school for backward children" owing to his severe stutter. He was subsequently mainly self-educated, whilst working as a typist and clerk for an engineering firm.31 He founded the poetry magazine Twentieth Century Verse in 1937, editing it for two years. His crime writing in the 1930s was incidental; later he became a major crime writer; by using irony, he pointed out the violence hidden in everyday life. His writing advanced beyond the mystery genre.4
He was a Trotskyist and sought status as a conscientious objector in World War II, but was refused by his tribunal. He served in the Royal Armoured Corps 1942 to 1944, when he was invalided out with a non-battle-related arm injury. After a period as an advertising copywriter, he became a full-time writer in 1947. During his career, he won two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America and, in 1982, received the MWA's . Symons served as the president of the from 1976 till 1985.
This page is based on “Julian Symons” from English Wikipedia, (r1371897660) CC BY-SA 4.0 used under the license. The original authors are listed in its page history.
Symons's 1972 book Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel (published as Mortal Consequences in the US) is one of the best-known critical works in the field of crime fiction. Revised editions were published in 1985, 1992 and finally in 1994. Symons highlighted the distinction between the classic puzzler mystery, associated with such writers as Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr, and the more modern "crime novel," which puts emphasis on psychology and motivation.
Symons published over thirty crime novels and story collections between 1945 and 1994. His works combined elements of both the detective story and the crime novel, but leaned clearly toward the latter, with an emphasis on character and psychology which anticipated later crime fiction writers such as Ruth Rendell and P.D. James. His novels tend to focus on ordinary people drawn into a murderous chain of events; the intricate plots are often spiced with black humour. Novels typical of his style include The Colour of Murder (1957), the Edgar-winning The Progress of a Crime (1960), The Man Whose Dreams Came True (1968) The Man Who Lost His Wife (1970) and The Plot Against Roger Ryder (1973).5
Symons wrote two modern-day Sherlock Holmespastiches, as well as a pastiche set in the 1920s. In A Three-Pipe Problem (1975), the detective was "...a television actor, Sheridan Hayes, who wears the mask of Sherlock Holmes and assumes his character. The book neatly reversed the usual theme of the criminal behind the mask by having a rather commonplace man wearing the mask of the great detective." A sequel The Kentish Manor Murders was written in 1988. For his 1981 book The Great Detectives, he wrote a Sherlock Holmes pastiche instead of a biographical sketch. Entitled "How a Hermit was Disturbed in His Retirement," the events of the tale take place in the 1920s as Sherlock Holmes is drawn out of retirement to solve an unusual missing persons case. The story was included in the collection The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, in which it was given the more Doylean title of "The Adventure of Hillerman Hall." He also made occasional forays into historical mystery, such as The Blackheath Poisonings (1978), which was filmed for television in 1992, and with Sweet Adelaide (1980).
In 1941, Symons married Kathleen Clark; they had a daughter Sarah and a son, Mark.6 Symons died at his home at Walmer, in Kent, and was survived by his widow and son.17
The Criminal Comedy of the Contented Couple (1985), as A Criminal Comedy (US)
Death's Darkest Face (1990)
Something Like a Love Affair (1992)
Playing Happy Families (1994)
A Sort of Virtue: A Political Crime Novel (1996)
Collected short crime fiction
Francis Quarles
Murder! Murder! (1961)
Centre Court Mystery; Test Match Murder; The Grand National Case; The Case of SW2; The Unhappy Piano Tuner; A Pearl among Women; Credit to William Shakespeare; Meeting in the Snow; The Wrong Hat; The Absent-Minded Professor; Each Man Kills; Time for Murder; The Case of the Frightened Promoter; Picture Show; Sailors' Hornpipe; The Hiding Place; Airport Incident; The Plaster Pekingese; Comedy in Venice; The Invisible Poison; Little Man Lost
Francis Quarles Investigates (1965)
Strolling in the Square One Day; The Archer; Out of the Mouths; Thirty Days Hath September; The Woman Afraid of October; Blue Paint; One Little Letter; The Santa Claus Club; Hot Summer Night; Coffee for Three; Four Letters; Kidnap Plot; A Matter of Dentistry; By the Sea; Ace of Spades
Red Rum Means Murder; Death in the Scillies; Poison Pen; An Exercise in Logic; Summer Show; The Desk; Mrs Rolleston's Diamonds; Murder - But How Was it Done?; Ancestor Worship; Iced Champagne; No Use Turning a Deaf Ear to Murder; The Duke of York; Double Double Cross; Tattoo; Jack and Jill; The Conjuring Trick; Happy Hexing; No Deception; The Second Bullet; Preserving the Evidence; Death for Mr Golightly; A Man with Blue hair; The Two Suitors; Airborne with a Borgia; Art Loving Mr Lister Lands a Fake; The Collector; Ghost from the Past; The Swedish Nightingale; The Barton Hall Dwarf; The Pepoli Case; Nothing up His Sleeve; A Present from Santa Claus; The Link; Little Boy Blue; Affection Unlimited; The Whistling Man; Party Line; Who Killed Harrington?; Murder in Reverse; The Vanishing Trick; The impossible Theft; Final Night Extra
Other collections
How to Trap a Crook (1977)
Experiment in Personality; A Theme for Hyacinth; Eight Minutes to Kill; 'Twixt the Cup and the Lip; How to Trap a Crook; Strolling in the Square One Day; The Tiger's Stripe; Love Affair; Credit to Shakespeare; The Main Chance; The Santa Claus Club; The Sensitive Ears of Mr. Small; Pickup on the Dover Road
The Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations (1981)
The Tigers of Subtopia; The Dupe; Somebody Else; The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring; The Boiler; The Murderer; A Theme For Hyacinth; The Last Time; The Flaw; Love Affair; The Best Chess Player in the World
The Man Who Hated Television (1995)
The Man Who Hated Television; In the Bluebell Wood; Et in Arcadia Ego; Has anybody here seen me?; The birthmark; Waiting for Mr. McGregor; The Conjuring Trick; The dream is better; The Borgia Heirloom ; Did Sherlock Holmes meet Hercule?; Holocaust at Mayhem Parva
A Julian Symons Sherlockian Duet (2000)
Did Sherlock Holmes Meet Hercule...?; The Affair of the Vanishing Diamonds
Crime and Detection: An Illustrated History from 1840 (1966)
Critical Occasions (1966) essays
Between the Wars: Britain in Photographs (1972) history
Notes From Another Country (1972) autobiographical
Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel: A History (1972) (US title: Mortal Consequences) Special Edgar Award, 1973; revised in 1985, third revised edition 1992, fourth revised edition 1994.
Tom Adams' Agatha Christie Cover Story (1981) (US title: Agatha Christie: The Art of Her Crimes. The Paintings of Tom Adams) (1981) introduction by John Fowles
Critical Observations: Diverse Essays (1981)
Crime and Detection Quiz (1983)
1948 and 1984. The Second Orwell Memorial Lecture (1984)
The Unhappy Piano Tuner. (London) Evening Standard, 20 July 1950. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
The Case of SW2. (London) Evening Standard, 3 August 1950. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
Mrs Rolleston's Diamonds. (London) Evening Standard, 10 August 1950. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Happy Hexing. (London) Evening Standard, 19 September 1950. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Desk. (London) Evening Standard, 29 September 1950. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Murder - But How Was it Done?. (London) Evening Standard, 29 October 1950. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Who Killed Harrington?. (London) Evening Standard, 28 November 1950. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Credit to William Shakespeare. (London) Evening Standard, 12 December 1950. Collected in Murder! Murder! and How to Trap a Crook (Francis Quarles)
Death in the Scillies. (London) Evening Standard, 13 March 1951. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Ghost from the Past. (London) Evening Standard, 1 October 1951. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Pepoli Case. (London) Evening Standard, 2 February 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Each Man Kills. (London) Evening Standard, 26 March 1952. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
Red Rum Means Murder. (London) Evening Standard, 15 May 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
A Matter of Dentistry. (London) Evening Standard, 25 June 1952. Collected in Francis Quarles Investigates (Francis Quarles)
The Whistling Man. (London) Evening Standard, 9 July 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Vanishing Trick. (London) Evening Standard, 28 July 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
An Exercise in Logic. (London) Evening Standard, 8 September 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Poison Pen. (London) Evening Standard, 15 September 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Preserving the Evidence. (London) Evening Standard, 18 September 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Nothing up His Sleeve. (London) Evening Standard, 23 September 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Double Double Cross. (London) Evening Standard, 25 September 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Death for Mr Golightly. (London) Evening Standard, 22 December 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
A Pearl among Women. (London) Evening Standard, 26 January 1953. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
The Duke of York. (London) Evening Standard, 27 January 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Conjuring Trick. (London) Evening Standard, 28 January 1953. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television and The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
No Deception. (London) Evening Standard, 29 January 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Link. (London) Evening Standard, 30 January 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
A Man with Blue Hair. (London) Evening Standard, 31 January 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Swedish Nightingale. (London) Evening Standard, 14 September 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Two Suitors. (London) Evening Standard, 15 September 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Tattoo. (London) Evening Standard, 16 September 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Collector. (London) Evening Standard, 18 September 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Jack and Jill. (London) Evening Standard, 19 September 1953; also published as Death by Drowning. Aberdeen Evening Express, 22 October 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Iced Champagne. (London) Evening Standard, 19 October 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Sailors' Hornpipe. Aberdeen Evening Express, 22 October 1953. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
Picture Show. (London) Evening Standard, 1 January 1954. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
Ace of Spades. (London) Evening Standard, 2 January 1954. Collected in Francis Quarles Investigates (Francis Quarles)
Time for Murder. Aberdeen Evening Express, 2 February 1954. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
The Plaster Pekingese. Aberdeen Evening Express, 3 February 1954. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
Airport Incident. Aberdeen Evening Express, 4 February 1954. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
Absent-Minded Professor. (London) Evening Standard, 4 May 1954. Collected in Murder! Murder! as "The Absent-Minded Professor" (Francis Quarles)
The Barton Hall Dwarf ("Deckchair Detective No. 1"). (London) Evening Standard, 16 August 1954. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Invisible Poison ("Deckchair Detective No. 2"). (London) Evening Standard, 17 August 1954. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
Meeting in the Snow ("Deckchair Detective No. 3"). (London) Evening Standard, 18 August 1954. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
The Wrong Hat. ("Deckchair Detective No. 5"). (London) Evening Standard, 19 August 1954. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
Little Boy Blue ("Deckchair Detective No. 4"). (London) Evening Standard, 20 August 1954. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Summer Show (Deckchair Detective No. 6). (London) Evening Standard, 21 August 1954. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
A Present from Santa Claus. (London) Evening Standard, 24 December 1954. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Final Night Extra (London Alibi No. 6). (London) Evening Standard, 3 September 1955; solution published on 5 September 1955. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Airborne with a Borgia. (London) Evening Standard, 28 September 1955. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Murder at the Grand National. (London) Evening Standard, 11 March to 1 April 1956. Collected in Murder! Murder! as "The Grand National Case" (Francis Quarles)
The Centre Court Mystery. (London) Evening Standard, 25 June to 7 July 1956. Collected in Murder! Murder! as "Centre Court Mystery"(Francis Quarles)
The Oval Test Murder. (London) Evening Standard, 20 August to 1 October 1956. Collected in Murder! Murder! as "Test Match Murder" (Francis Quarles)
Party Line. (London) Evening Standard, 30 October 1956. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Second Bullet. (London) Evening Standard, 31 October 1956. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Murder in Reverse. (London) Evening Standard, 2 November 1956. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Ancestor Worship. (London) Evening Standard, 3 November 1956. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Eight Minutes to Kill. (London) Evening Standard, 30 May to 8 June 1957. Collected in How to Trap a Crook
Art Loving Mr Lister Lands a Fake. (London) Evening Standard, 13 March 1963. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
No Use Turning a Deaf Ear to Murder. (London) Evening Standard, 1 June 1964. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Impossible Theft. Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, January 1966. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
How a Hermit Was Disturbed in His Retirement. The Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations (Sherlock Holmes)
About Miss Marple and St Mary Mead. The Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations (Miss Marple)
In Which Archie Goodwin Remembers. The Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations (Nero Wolfe)
Which Expounds the Ellery Queens Mystery. The Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations (Ellery Queen)
About Maigret and the Stolen Papers. The Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations (Inspector Maigret)
The Life of Hercule Poirot: based on the notes of Captain Arthur Hastings. The Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations (Hercule Poirot). Published in a limited edition of 200 copies (1988); and reprinted in The Man Who Hated Television as Did Sherlock Holmes Meet Hercule?
About the Birth of Philip Marlowe. The Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations (Philip Marlowe)
The Man Who Hated Television. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television
In The Bluebell Wood. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television
Et In Arcadia Ego. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television
Has Anybody Here Seen Me?. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television
The Birthmark. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television
Waiting For Mr. McGregor. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television
The Dream Is Better. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television
The Borgia Heirloom. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television
Holocaust At Mayhem Parva. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television
The Rare Book Game, George Sims, Holmes Publishing Company, 1985, p. 69 ↩
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Penguin Books, 1985; ISBN 0-14-007907-6. Introduction. ↩
Grimes, Larry (1984). "Julian Symons". In Bargainnier (ed.). Twelve Englishmen of mystery. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press. ISBN 978-0-87972-249-4. ↩
Mystery Voices- Interviews with British Crime Writers, Dale Salwak, Wildside Press, 1991, p. 95 ↩
Julian Gustave Symons (originally Gustave Julian Symons, pronounced SIMM-ons;1 30 May 1912 – 19 November 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature. He was born in Clapham, London, and died in Walmer, Kent.
Life and work
Julian Symons was born in London to auctioneer Morris Albert Symons (died 1929), of Russian-Polish Jewish immigrant parentage, and Minnie Louise (died 1964), née Bull.2 He was a younger brother, and later the biographer, of writer A. J. A. Symons. Like his brother, due to the family's straitened financial circumstances, he left school at 14, having attended a "school for backward children" owing to his severe stutter. He was subsequently mainly self-educated, whilst working as a typist and clerk for an engineering firm.31 He founded the poetry magazine Twentieth Century Verse in 1937, editing it for two years. His crime writing in the 1930s was incidental; later he became a major crime writer; by using irony, he pointed out the violence hidden in everyday life. His writing advanced beyond the mystery genre.4
He was a Trotskyist and sought status as a conscientious objector in World War II, but was refused by his tribunal. He served in the Royal Armoured Corps 1942 to 1944, when he was invalided out with a non-battle-related arm injury. After a period as an advertising copywriter, he became a full-time writer in 1947. During his career, he won two Edgar Awards from the and, in 1982, received the MWA's . Symons served as the president of the from 1976 till 1985.
Symons's 1972 book Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel (published as Mortal Consequences in the US) is one of the best-known critical works in the field of crime fiction. Revised editions were published in 1985, 1992 and finally in 1994. Symons highlighted the distinction between the classic puzzler mystery, associated with such writers as Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr, and the more modern "crime novel," which puts emphasis on psychology and motivation.
Symons published over thirty crime novels and story collections between 1945 and 1994. His works combined elements of both the detective story and the crime novel, but leaned clearly toward the latter, with an emphasis on character and psychology which anticipated later crime fiction writers such as Ruth Rendell and P.D. James. His novels tend to focus on ordinary people drawn into a murderous chain of events; the intricate plots are often spiced with black humour. Novels typical of his style include The Colour of Murder (1957), the Edgar-winning The Progress of a Crime (1960), The Man Whose Dreams Came True (1968) The Man Who Lost His Wife (1970) and The Plot Against Roger Ryder (1973).5
Symons wrote two modern-day Sherlock Holmespastiches, as well as a pastiche set in the 1920s. In A Three-Pipe Problem (1975), the detective was "...a television actor, Sheridan Hayes, who wears the mask of Sherlock Holmes and assumes his character. The book neatly reversed the usual theme of the criminal behind the mask by having a rather commonplace man wearing the mask of the great detective." A sequel The Kentish Manor Murders was written in 1988. For his 1981 book The Great Detectives, he wrote a Sherlock Holmes pastiche instead of a biographical sketch. Entitled "How a Hermit was Disturbed in His Retirement," the events of the tale take place in the 1920s as Sherlock Holmes is drawn out of retirement to solve an unusual missing persons case. The story was included in the collection The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, in which it was given the more Doylean title of "The Adventure of Hillerman Hall." He also made occasional forays into historical mystery, such as The Blackheath Poisonings (1978), which was filmed for television in 1992, and with Sweet Adelaide (1980).
In 1941, Symons married Kathleen Clark; they had a daughter Sarah and a son, Mark.6 Symons died at his home at Walmer, in Kent, and was survived by his widow and son.17
The Criminal Comedy of the Contented Couple (1985), as A Criminal Comedy (US)
Death's Darkest Face (1990)
Something Like a Love Affair (1992)
Playing Happy Families (1994)
A Sort of Virtue: A Political Crime Novel (1996)
Collected short crime fiction
Francis Quarles
Murder! Murder! (1961)
Centre Court Mystery; Test Match Murder; The Grand National Case; The Case of SW2; The Unhappy Piano Tuner; A Pearl among Women; Credit to William Shakespeare; Meeting in the Snow; The Wrong Hat; The Absent-Minded Professor; Each Man Kills; Time for Murder; The Case of the Frightened Promoter; Picture Show; Sailors' Hornpipe; The Hiding Place; Airport Incident; The Plaster Pekingese; Comedy in Venice; The Invisible Poison; Little Man Lost
Francis Quarles Investigates (1965)
Strolling in the Square One Day; The Archer; Out of the Mouths; Thirty Days Hath September; The Woman Afraid of October; Blue Paint; One Little Letter; The Santa Claus Club; Hot Summer Night; Coffee for Three; Four Letters; Kidnap Plot; A Matter of Dentistry; By the Sea; Ace of Spades
Red Rum Means Murder; Death in the Scillies; Poison Pen; An Exercise in Logic; Summer Show; The Desk; Mrs Rolleston's Diamonds; Murder - But How Was it Done?; Ancestor Worship; Iced Champagne; No Use Turning a Deaf Ear to Murder; The Duke of York; Double Double Cross; Tattoo; Jack and Jill; The Conjuring Trick; Happy Hexing; No Deception; The Second Bullet; Preserving the Evidence; Death for Mr Golightly; A Man with Blue hair; The Two Suitors; Airborne with a Borgia; Art Loving Mr Lister Lands a Fake; The Collector; Ghost from the Past; The Swedish Nightingale; The Barton Hall Dwarf; The Pepoli Case; Nothing up His Sleeve; A Present from Santa Claus; The Link; Little Boy Blue; Affection Unlimited; The Whistling Man; Party Line; Who Killed Harrington?; Murder in Reverse; The Vanishing Trick; The impossible Theft; Final Night Extra
Other collections
How to Trap a Crook (1977)
Experiment in Personality; A Theme for Hyacinth; Eight Minutes to Kill; 'Twixt the Cup and the Lip; How to Trap a Crook; Strolling in the Square One Day; The Tiger's Stripe; Love Affair; Credit to Shakespeare; The Main Chance; The Santa Claus Club; The Sensitive Ears of Mr. Small; Pickup on the Dover Road
The Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations (1981)
The Tigers of Subtopia; The Dupe; Somebody Else; The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring; The Boiler; The Murderer; A Theme For Hyacinth; The Last Time; The Flaw; Love Affair; The Best Chess Player in the World
The Man Who Hated Television (1995)
The Man Who Hated Television; In the Bluebell Wood; Et in Arcadia Ego; Has anybody here seen me?; The birthmark; Waiting for Mr. McGregor; The Conjuring Trick; The dream is better; The Borgia Heirloom ; Did Sherlock Holmes meet Hercule?; Holocaust at Mayhem Parva
A Julian Symons Sherlockian Duet (2000)
Did Sherlock Holmes Meet Hercule...?; The Affair of the Vanishing Diamonds
Crime and Detection: An Illustrated History from 1840 (1966)
Critical Occasions (1966) essays
Between the Wars: Britain in Photographs (1972) history
Notes From Another Country (1972) autobiographical
Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel: A History (1972) (US title: Mortal Consequences) Special Edgar Award, 1973; revised in 1985, third revised edition 1992, fourth revised edition 1994.
Tom Adams' Agatha Christie Cover Story (1981) (US title: Agatha Christie: The Art of Her Crimes. The Paintings of Tom Adams) (1981) introduction by John Fowles
Critical Observations: Diverse Essays (1981)
Crime and Detection Quiz (1983)
1948 and 1984. The Second Orwell Memorial Lecture (1984)
The Unhappy Piano Tuner. (London) Evening Standard, 20 July 1950. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
The Case of SW2. (London) Evening Standard, 3 August 1950. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
Mrs Rolleston's Diamonds. (London) Evening Standard, 10 August 1950. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Happy Hexing. (London) Evening Standard, 19 September 1950. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Desk. (London) Evening Standard, 29 September 1950. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Murder - But How Was it Done?. (London) Evening Standard, 29 October 1950. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Who Killed Harrington?. (London) Evening Standard, 28 November 1950. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Credit to William Shakespeare. (London) Evening Standard, 12 December 1950. Collected in Murder! Murder! and How to Trap a Crook (Francis Quarles)
Death in the Scillies. (London) Evening Standard, 13 March 1951. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Ghost from the Past. (London) Evening Standard, 1 October 1951. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Pepoli Case. (London) Evening Standard, 2 February 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Each Man Kills. (London) Evening Standard, 26 March 1952. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
Red Rum Means Murder. (London) Evening Standard, 15 May 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
A Matter of Dentistry. (London) Evening Standard, 25 June 1952. Collected in Francis Quarles Investigates (Francis Quarles)
The Whistling Man. (London) Evening Standard, 9 July 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Vanishing Trick. (London) Evening Standard, 28 July 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
An Exercise in Logic. (London) Evening Standard, 8 September 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Poison Pen. (London) Evening Standard, 15 September 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Preserving the Evidence. (London) Evening Standard, 18 September 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Nothing up His Sleeve. (London) Evening Standard, 23 September 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Double Double Cross. (London) Evening Standard, 25 September 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Death for Mr Golightly. (London) Evening Standard, 22 December 1952. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
A Pearl among Women. (London) Evening Standard, 26 January 1953. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
The Duke of York. (London) Evening Standard, 27 January 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Conjuring Trick. (London) Evening Standard, 28 January 1953. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television and The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
No Deception. (London) Evening Standard, 29 January 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Link. (London) Evening Standard, 30 January 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
A Man with Blue Hair. (London) Evening Standard, 31 January 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Swedish Nightingale. (London) Evening Standard, 14 September 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Two Suitors. (London) Evening Standard, 15 September 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Tattoo. (London) Evening Standard, 16 September 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Collector. (London) Evening Standard, 18 September 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Jack and Jill. (London) Evening Standard, 19 September 1953; also published as Death by Drowning. Aberdeen Evening Express, 22 October 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Iced Champagne. (London) Evening Standard, 19 October 1953. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Sailors' Hornpipe. Aberdeen Evening Express, 22 October 1953. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
Picture Show. (London) Evening Standard, 1 January 1954. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
Ace of Spades. (London) Evening Standard, 2 January 1954. Collected in Francis Quarles Investigates (Francis Quarles)
Time for Murder. Aberdeen Evening Express, 2 February 1954. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
The Plaster Pekingese. Aberdeen Evening Express, 3 February 1954. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
Airport Incident. Aberdeen Evening Express, 4 February 1954. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
Absent-Minded Professor. (London) Evening Standard, 4 May 1954. Collected in Murder! Murder! as "The Absent-Minded Professor" (Francis Quarles)
The Barton Hall Dwarf ("Deckchair Detective No. 1"). (London) Evening Standard, 16 August 1954. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Invisible Poison ("Deckchair Detective No. 2"). (London) Evening Standard, 17 August 1954. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
Meeting in the Snow ("Deckchair Detective No. 3"). (London) Evening Standard, 18 August 1954. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
The Wrong Hat. ("Deckchair Detective No. 5"). (London) Evening Standard, 19 August 1954. Collected in Murder! Murder! (Francis Quarles)
Little Boy Blue ("Deckchair Detective No. 4"). (London) Evening Standard, 20 August 1954. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Summer Show (Deckchair Detective No. 6). (London) Evening Standard, 21 August 1954. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
A Present from Santa Claus. (London) Evening Standard, 24 December 1954. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Final Night Extra (London Alibi No. 6). (London) Evening Standard, 3 September 1955; solution published on 5 September 1955. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Airborne with a Borgia. (London) Evening Standard, 28 September 1955. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Murder at the Grand National. (London) Evening Standard, 11 March to 1 April 1956. Collected in Murder! Murder! as "The Grand National Case" (Francis Quarles)
The Centre Court Mystery. (London) Evening Standard, 25 June to 7 July 1956. Collected in Murder! Murder! as "Centre Court Mystery"(Francis Quarles)
The Oval Test Murder. (London) Evening Standard, 20 August to 1 October 1956. Collected in Murder! Murder! as "Test Match Murder" (Francis Quarles)
Party Line. (London) Evening Standard, 30 October 1956. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Second Bullet. (London) Evening Standard, 31 October 1956. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Murder in Reverse. (London) Evening Standard, 2 November 1956. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Ancestor Worship. (London) Evening Standard, 3 November 1956. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
Eight Minutes to Kill. (London) Evening Standard, 30 May to 8 June 1957. Collected in How to Trap a Crook
Art Loving Mr Lister Lands a Fake. (London) Evening Standard, 13 March 1963. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
No Use Turning a Deaf Ear to Murder. (London) Evening Standard, 1 June 1964. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
The Impossible Theft. Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, January 1966. Collected in The Detections of Francis Quarles (Francis Quarles)
How a Hermit Was Disturbed in His Retirement. The Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations (Sherlock Holmes)
About Miss Marple and St Mary Mead. The Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations (Miss Marple)
In Which Archie Goodwin Remembers. The Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations (Nero Wolfe)
Which Expounds the Ellery Queens Mystery. The Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations (Ellery Queen)
About Maigret and the Stolen Papers. The Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations (Inspector Maigret)
The Life of Hercule Poirot: based on the notes of Captain Arthur Hastings. The Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations (Hercule Poirot). Published in a limited edition of 200 copies (1988); and reprinted in The Man Who Hated Television as Did Sherlock Holmes Meet Hercule?
About the Birth of Philip Marlowe. The Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations (Philip Marlowe)
The Man Who Hated Television. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television
In The Bluebell Wood. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television
Et In Arcadia Ego. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television
Has Anybody Here Seen Me?. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television
The Birthmark. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television
Waiting For Mr. McGregor. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television
The Dream Is Better. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television
The Borgia Heirloom. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television
Holocaust At Mayhem Parva. Collected in The Man Who Hated Television
The Rare Book Game, George Sims, Holmes Publishing Company, 1985, p. 69 ↩
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Penguin Books, 1985; ISBN 0-14-007907-6. Introduction. ↩
Grimes, Larry (1984). "Julian Symons". In Bargainnier (ed.). Twelve Englishmen of mystery. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press. ISBN 978-0-87972-249-4. ↩
Mystery Voices- Interviews with British Crime Writers, Dale Salwak, Wildside Press, 1991, p. 95 ↩