Basil Thomson

Born in Oxford in 1861, Sir Basil Home Thomson lived a life that was far more dramatic than most novelists could invent. He worked as a colonial administrator in the Pacific, later served in the prison system, and eventually became head of the Metropolitan Police CID during the First World War.

That background gave his writing a distinctive edge. Alongside nonfiction on criminology and related subjects, he wrote a series of crime novels in the 1930s featuring Inspector Richardson. Readers and later publishers have noted how convincingly he brought Scotland Yard procedure and criminal investigation onto the page.

Thomson died in 1939. Today he is remembered not only as a public official and intelligence figure, but also as a crime writer whose fiction stands out for its firsthand feel and clear connection to the world he knew so well.