A British writer and author, born in Stamford, United Kingdom. He was the writer of the Inspector Morse novel series, which was adapted for television. At the British University of Cambridge, he majored in classical literature, graduating in 1953 and earning a master's degree in 1958. Before he started writing crime fiction, he wrote textbooks and worked as a teacher. Between 1975 and 1999, he authored thirteen novels about Inspector Morris. He worked at the University of Oxford in England.