Colin Watson was born in 1920 in Croydon, England. At age 17 he was appointed cub reporter on the Boston Guardian, a local newspaper in a Lincolnshire market town. His years as a journalist there proved a formative experience, and he collected then much of the material that formed the basis for the Flaxborough novels. He won two CWA Silver Dagger awards, and the Flaxborough series was adapted for television by the BBC under the title Murder Most English. He died in 1983.

Colin Watson was born in 1920 in Croydon, England. At age 17 he was appointed cub reporter on the Boston Guardian, a local newspaper in a Lincolnshire market town. His years as a journalist there proved a formative experience, and he collected then much of the material that formed the basis for the Flaxborough novels. He won two CWA Silver Dagger awards, and the Flaxborough series was adapted for television by the BBC under the title Murder Most English. He died in 1983.