Best of Father Brown

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was born in Campden Hill, London and educated at St Paul's School and the Slade School of Art and then made his name as a journalist. His first two books were volumes of verse and then in 1904 he wrote The Napoleon of Notting Hill. He followed this with studies of Dickens and Robert Browning and The Man Who Was Thursday. The first Father Brown book, The Innocence of Father Brown, appeared in 1911. In 1922 he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. During his life he produced more than a hundred books, including various religious writings, poetry and essays. He also illustrated the novels of his friend, Hilaire Belloc.

• TOC: The Secret of Father Brown; The Secret Garden; The Queer Feet; The Invisible Man; The Wrong Shape; The Hammer of God; The Absence of Mr. Glass; The Man in the Passage; The Mistake of the Machine; The Purple Wig; The Arrow of Heaven; The Oracle of the Dog; The Doom of the Darnaways; The Mirror of the Magistrate; The Song of the Flying Fish; The Vampire of the Village.