Leslie Charteris
Leslie Charteris (/ˈtʃɑːrtərɪs/; born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin; 12 May 1907 – 15 April 1993), was a British-Chinese author of adventure fiction, as well as a screenwriter.[1] He was best known for his many books chronicling the adventures of his hero Simon Templar, alias "The Saint".
Leslie Charteris
Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin
12 May 1907
British Singapore
15 April 1993 (aged 85)
Windsor, Berkshire, England
Thriller writer, screenwriter
British & American (naturalised, 1946)
20th century
Thriller
Early life[edit]
Charteris was born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, in Singapore. His mother, Lydia Florence Bowyer, was English. His father, Dr S. C. Yin (Yin Suat Chuan, 1877–1958),[2] was a Chinese physician who claimed to be able to trace his lineage back to the emperors of the Shang dynasty.[1]
Leslie became interested in writing at an early age. At one point, he created his own magazine with articles, short stories, poems, editorials, serials, and even a comic strip. He attended Saint Andrew's School, Singapore, and after moving to England, Rossall School in Fleetwood, Lancashire. His formal education continued at King's College, Cambridge, where he read law. However, he dropped out in his first year to focus on developing his burgeoning literary career.
In 1926, Leslie legally changed his surname to "Charteris". In the BBC Radio 4 documentary Leslie Charteris – A Saintly Centennial, his daughter stated that he had selected the name from a telephone directory. This information is contradicted by other sources, however. William Ruehlmann (author of Saint with a Gun: The Unlawful American Private Eye,[3] in an introduction to the 1988 edition of The Saint in New York, "He acquired..., in 1928, the legal name of Charteris, after the roguish Col. Francis, gambler, duellist and founder of the Hellfire Club"[4] (confusing Col. Francis Charteris (rake) with Francis Dashwood, 11th Baron le Despencer, also a rake and founder of the Hellfire Club).
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Later life[edit]
The adventures of The Saint were chronicled in nearly 100 books (about 50 published in the UK and US, with others published in France). Charteris himself stepped away from writing the books after The Saint in the Sun (1963). The next year, Vendetta for the Saint was published and while it was credited to Charteris, it was actually written by science fiction writer Harry Harrison. Following Vendetta came a number of books adapting televised episodes, credited to Charteris, but written by others, although Charteris did collaborate on several Saint books in the 1970s. Charteris appears to have served in an editorial capacity for these later volumes. He also edited and contributed to The Saint Mystery Magazine, a digest-sized publication. The final book in the Saint series was Salvage for the Saint, published in 1983. Two additional books were published in 1997, a novelization of the film loosely based on the character, and an original novel published by "The Saint Club", a fan club that Charteris himself founded in the 1930s. Both books were written by Burl Barer, who also wrote the definitive history on Charteris and The Saint.
Charteris spent 55 years – 1928 to 1983 – as either writer of or custodian of Simon Templar's literary adventures, one of the longest uninterrupted spans of a single author in the history of mystery fiction, equalling that of Agatha Christie, who wrote her novels and stories featuring detective Hercule Poirot.
A comic book adaptation of The Saint was produced in Sweden from 1969 to 1991 with at least 170 stories produced. As part of the contract, all story ideas had to be approved by Charteris himself before the story was completed. Among the creators of these stories were writers Norman Worker and Donne Avenell; the latter also co-wrote the novels The Saint and the Templar Treasure and the novella collection Count on the Saint, while Worker contributed to the novella collection Catch the Saint.
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Personal life and death[edit]
Charteris also wrote a column on cuisine for an American magazine, and invented a wordless, pictorial sign language called Paleneo, which he wrote a book about. Charteris was one of the earliest members of Mensa.[14][15]
Charteris married four times (see the Family section below for details).[16] In 1952, Charteris married Hollywood actress Audrey Long (1922–2014); the couple eventually returned to England, where he spent his last years living in Surrey. Their address was Corfield, Ridgemead Road, Englefield Green.[17] He died at Princess Margaret's Hospital Windsor, Berkshire, on 15 April 1993, survived by his wife and daughter, Patricia Charteris Higgins.[18] Audrey died at Egham, Surrey in September 2014, aged 92.[19]
Works[edit]
For a list of all Charteris's works, see List of works by Leslie Charteris; for a breakdown of Simon Templar novels, novellas and short story collections by Charteris, see the list at Simon Templar.
In addition, Charteris authored numerous uncollected short stories and essays.[22]
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