Robert Barnard is an English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 crime writer, critic

Critic

A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...

 and lecturer

Lecturer

Lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a position at a university or similar institution, often held by academics in their early career stages, who lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...

.

Life and work

Born in Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

, Barnard was educated at the Colchester Royal Grammar School

Colchester Royal Grammar School

Colchester Royal Grammar School is a grammar school in Colchester, Essex, founded in AD 1206 and granted two Royal Charters by Henry VIII and by Elizabeth I .-Admissions:...

 and at Balliol College in Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

.
His first crime novel, A Little Local Murder, was published in 1976. The novel was written while he was a lecturer at University of Tromsø

University of Tromsø

The University of Tromsø is the world's northernmost university. Located in the city of Tromsø, Norway, it was established in 1968, and opened in 1972. It is one of eight universities in Norway. The University of Tromsø is the largest research and educational institution in northern Norway...

 in Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. He has gone on to write more than 40 other books and numerous short stories.

Barnard has said that his favourite crime writer is Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...

. In 1980 he published a critique of her work titled A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie.

Barnard was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger

Cartier Diamond Dagger

The Cartier Diamond Dagger is an award given by the Crime Writers' Association of Great Britain to authors who have made an outstanding lifetime's contribution to the genre. The 2011 winner is Lindsey Davis.-Winners:* 1986 - Eric Ambler* 1987 - P. D...

 in 2003 by the Crime Writers Association for a lifetime of achievement.

Under the pseudonym Bernard Bastable, Robert Barnard has published one standalone novel and three alternate history books starring Wolfgang Mozart as a detective, he having survived to old age.

Barnard and his wife Louise live in Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

.

Mystery novels

• A Little Local Murder (1976)
• Death on the High Cs (1977)
• Death of an Old Goat (1977)
• Blood Brotherhood (1977) ISBN 0802753876
• Unruly Son (1978) aka Death of a Mystery Writer
• Posthumous Papers (1979) aka Death of a Literary Widow
• Death in a Cold Climate (1980)
• Mother's Boys (1981) aka Death of a Perfect Mother
• Little Victims (1983) aka School for Murder
• Out of the Blackout (1984)
• A Corpse in a Gilded Cage (1984)
• Disposal of the Living (1985) aka Fete Fatale
• Political Suicide (1986)
• The Skeleton in the Grass (1987)
• At Death's Door (1988) ISBN 978-0-00-232195-2
• A City of Strangers (1990) ISBN 978-0-440-20750-4
• Scandal in Belgravia (1991) ISBN 978-1-890208-16-5
• Masters of the House (1994) ISBN 978-0-380-72511-3
• Touched by the Dead (1999) ISBN 978-0-00-232684-1
• Unholy Dying (2000) ISBN 978-0-7432-0149-0
• The Mistress of Alderley (2002) ISBN 978-0-7490-0686-0
• A Cry From The Dark (2003) ISBN 978-0-7432-5345-1
• The Graveyard Position (2004) ISBN 978-0-7432-5346-8
• Dying Flames (2005) ISBN 978-0-7432-7219-3
• Last Post (2008) ISBN 978-0-7490-8068-6
• Stranger in the family (2010) ISBN 9781439176740

Charlie Peace novels

• Death and the Chaste Apprentice (1989)
• A Fatal Attachment (1992) ISBN 978-0-380-71998-3
• A Hovering of Vultures (1993) ISBN 978-0-380-77653-5
• The Bad Samaritan (1995) ISBN 978-0-00-232562-2
• No Place of Safety (1997) ISBN 978-0-684-84503-6
• The Corpse at the Haworth Tandoori (1998) ISBN 978-0-7432-2427-7
• The Bones in the Attic (2001) ISBN 978-0-684-87379-4
• A Fall from Grace (2006) ISBN 978-0-7432-7220-9
• The Killings on Jubilee Terrace (2011) ISBN 9781416559436

Perry Trethowan novels

• Death by Sheer Torture
  Death by Sheer Torture
  Death by Sheer Torture , also known simply as Sheer Torture, is a mystery novel by English writer Robert Barnard, the first of five novels, penned in the '80s, featuring his recurring detective character Perry Trethowan.-Synopsis:...
  
  (1981)
• Death and the Princess (1982)
• The Missing Bronte (1983)
• Bodies (1986)
• Death in Purple Prose (1987) aka The Cherry Blossom Corpse

Novels written as Bernard Bastable

• To Die Like a Gentleman (1993)
• Dead, Mr. Mozart (1995) ISBN 978-0-312-11771-9
• Mansion and its Murder (1998) ISBN 978-0-7867-0515-3
• Too Many Notes, Mr. Mozart (1998) ISBN 978-0-7515-1806-1

Non-fiction

• Imagery and Theme in the Novels of Dickens (1974)
• A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie (1980)
• A Short History of English Literature (1984) ISBN 978-0-631-19088-2
• Emily Brontë (British Library Writers' lives series) (2000) ISBN 0712346589
• A Brontë Encyclopedia (with Louise Barnard) (2007) ISBN 1405151196

External links

• Internet Book List
• CWA Award Announcement
• 1984 interview with Robert Barnard by Don Swaim
  Don Swaim
  Don Swaim is an American journalist and broadcaster.Born in Kansas, Swaim earned a degree in broadcast journalism from Ohio University and worked as editor, writer, producer, reporter and anchor at WCBS in New York and CBS in Baltimore....
  
   at Wired for Books
  Wired for Books
  Wired for Books is an online educational project of the WOUB Center for Public Media at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. The website features author interviews, dramatic audio productions of classic literature, readings of poetry, short stories, lectures, essays, and children's literature.Nearly...
  
  
• 2006 audio interview with Robert Barnard by Elizabeth Foxwell