William John Burley was a British crime writer, best known for his books featuring the detective
Charles WycliffeDetective Superintendent Charles Wycliffe is a fictional detective, created by author W. J. Burley. He is featured in twenty-two novels. ....
, who became the basis of the popular
WycliffeWycliffe is a British TV series, based on W. J. Burley's novels about Detective Superintendent Charles Wycliffe . It was produced by HTV and broadcast on the ITV Network, following a pilot episode on 7 August 1993, between 24 July 1994 and 5 July 1998. The series was filmed in Cornwall, with a...
television series throughout the mid 1990s.
Burley was born in
FalmouthFalmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....
,
CornwallCornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
. Before he began writing, he was employed in
senior managementSenior management, executive management, or management team is generally a team of individuals at the highest level of organizational management who have the day-to-day responsibilities of managing a company or corporation, they hold specific executive powers conferred onto them with and by...
with various
gasGas is one of the three classical states of matter . Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid. As heat is added to this substance it melts into a liquid at its melting point , boils into a gas at its boiling point, and if heated high enough would enter a plasma state in which the electrons...
companies, before giving it up after the Second World War when he obtained a scholarship to study
zoologyZoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
at
Balliol College, OxfordBalliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
. After obtaining an honours degree he became a teacher. Appointed head of
biologyBiology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, first at Richmond & East Sheen County Grammar School in 1953, then at
NewquayNewquay is a town, civil parish, seaside resort and fishing port in Cornwall, England. It is situated on the North Atlantic coast of Cornwall approximately west of Bodmin and north of Truro....
Grammar SchoolA grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
in 1955, he was well established as a writer by the time he retired at the age of 60 in 1974. He died at his home in
Holywell, CornwallHolywell is a coastal village in north Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated about three miles west-southwest of Newquay.Holywell beach adjoins the settlement to the northwest and Penhale Camp, an army training establishment regularly used by cadets, is half-a-mile to the southwest...
, on 15 August 2002.
Wycliffe
- Wycliffe and the Three-Toed Pussy
Wycliffe and the Three-Toed Pussy is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley, the first in his acclaimed Wycliffe series.-Synopsis:...
(1968)
- Wycliffe and How to Kill a Cat
Wycliffe and How To Kill A Cat is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley featuring detective Charles Wycliffe.-Synopsis:A young, auburn haired and naked woman turns up strangled in a seedy hotel room down by the docks, her face savagely beaten after death...
(1970)
- Wycliffe and the Guilt Edged Alibi
Wycliffe and the Guilt Edged Alibi is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley featuring his series detective, Charles Wycliffe.-Synopsis:...
(1971)
- Wycliffe and Death in a Salubrious Place
Wycliffe and Death in a Salubrious Place is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley.-Synopsis:In a remote corner of the Isles of Scilly, the murdered body of a young woman has been found, her skull and facial bones smashed...
(1973)
- Wycliffe and Death in Stanley Street
Wycliffe and Death in Stanley Street is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley.-Synopsis:In a sleazy cul-de-sac just off the main road of a sprawling West Country port, a prostitute has been found naked and strangled in her bed...
(1974)
- Wycliffe and the Pea-Green Boat
Wycliffe and the Pea-Green Boat is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley, featuring his recurring protagonist Charles Wycliffe.-Synopsis:...
(1975)
- Wycliffe and the Schoolgirls
Wycliffe and the Schoolgirls is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley.-Synopsis:Two very different women, a nightclub singer and a nurse, have been strangled in their own homes, under the same efficient modus operandi, within the space of one week...
(1976)
- Wycliffe and the Scapegoat
Wycliffe and the Scapegoat is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley.-Synopsis:Every Halloween in Cornwall, the life size effigy of a man rolls down the cliffs and into the sea inside a flaming wheel; the morbid commemoration of an age old Pagan ritual whereby the dummy would in fact be a...
(1978)
- Wycliffe in Paul's Court
Wycliffe in Paul's Court is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley.-Synopsis:The small community of Paul's Court is shattered by the violent deaths of Willy Goppel, a German doll house maker found hanging from a beam in his home, and Yvette Cole, a fifteen year old with a wild reputation,...
(1980)
- Wycliffe's Wild Goose Chase
Wycliffe's Wild Goose Chase is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley.-Synopsis:While taking a leisurely Sunday stroll along the West Country estuary, Wycliffe stumbles across a service revolver with one recently fired chamber...
(1982)
- Wycliffe and the Beales
Wycliffe and the Beales is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley featuring his series detective, Charles Wycliffe.-Synopsis:...
(1983)
- Wycliffe and the Four Jacks
Wycliffe and the Four Jacks is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley.-Synopsis:The reclusive writer David Cleeve has been receiving mysterious warnings in the form of a single playing card; the Jack of Diamonds...
(1985)
- Wycliffe and the Quiet Virgin
Wycliffe and the Quiet Virgin is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley featuring his series detective, Charles Wycliffe.-Synopsis:...
(1986)
- Wycliffe and the Winsor Blue
Wycliffe and the Winsor Blue is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley. -Synopsis:Following the death of artist Edwin Garland from a heart attack, his family and friends gather for the funeral, and are duly shocked by the apparently motiveless shooting of the dead man's son...
(1987)
- Wycliffe and the Tangled Web
Wycliffe and the Tangled Web is a crime novel by Cornwish writer W. J. Burley. -Synopsis:Shortly after informing her boyfriend and sister of her pregnancy, a young woman from a quiet Cornish village goes missing, opening up the possibility that she may have been raped or murdered...
(1988)
- Wycliffe and the Cycle of Death
Wycliffe and the Cycle of Death is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley featuring his series detective, Charles Wycliffe.-Synopsis:...
(1990)
- Wycliffe and the Dead Flautist
Wycliffe and the Dead Flautist is a crime novel by the Cornish writer W. J. Burley.-Synopsis:When the body of amateur flautist Tony Mills is found shot dead by his own gun on the secluded estate of Lord and Lady Bottrell, everyone simply assumes suicide...
(1991)
- Wycliffe and the Last Rites
Wycliffe and the Last Rites is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley featuring his series detective Charles Wycliffe.-Synopsis:...
(1992)
- Wycliffe and the Dunes Mystery
Wycliffe and the Dunes Mystery is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley. -Synopsis:Fifteen years ago, Cochran Wilder supposedly vanished during a walking holiday in Cornwall, and has now just been released from a psychiatric hospital, where he was incarcerated after successfully pleading...
(1993)
- Wycliffe and the House of Fear
Wycliffe and the House of Fear is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley featuring detective Charles Wycliffe.-Synopsis:For five hundred years the Kemps, a fiercely Catholic family, have held onto their ancestral home of Kellycoryk...
(1995)
- Wycliffe and the Redhead
Wycliffe and the Redhead is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley.-Synopsis:Simon Meagor, a lonely bookseller and divorcee, ends up falling for pretty redhead Morwenna, whose father killed himself as a result of Simon's testimony in a murder trial several years ago...
(1997)
- Wycliffe and the Guild of Nine
Wycliffe and the Guild of Nine is a crime novel by Cornish writer W. J. Burley. -Synopsis:On the moor west of St. Ives, an artists colony has been running on the site of a disused mine, run by the married astrologers Archer and Lina. Their latest member is the shadowy and beautiful Francine, who...
(2000)
- Wycliffe and the Last Lap (2003) unfinished
Miscellaneous
- The Schoolmaster (1977)
- The Sixth Day (1978)
- Charles and Elizabeth (1979)
- The House of Care (1981)
External links