Knight, Bernard 1931-
(Bernard Picton)

PERSONAL:

Born May 3, 1931, in Cardiff, Wales; son of Harold Ivor (a shipbroker) and Doris Knight; married Jean Ogborne (a company director), June 11, 1955; children: Huw. Education: University of Wales, B.Surg., 1954, Diploma in Medical Jurisprudence, 1966, M.D., 1966, F.R.C. Path., 1976. Politics: Welsh Nationalist. Religion: Agnostic.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Forensic Pathology, Welsh National School of Medicine, Cardiff CF2 1SZ, Wales.

CAREER:

Forensic pathologist, barrister-at-law, and writer. University of London, London, England, lecturer in forensic medicine, 1959-61; affiliated with Welsh National School of Medicine (independent school of University of Wales), Cardiff, Wales, 1961-65; University of Newcastle, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, senior lecturer in forensic pathology, 1965-68; Welsh National School of Medicine, senior lecturer, 1968-75, reader in forensic pathology, 1975—. Consultant pathologist to Home Office Forensic Laboratory, Cardiff, and National Museum of Wales; honorary consultant pathologist to National Health Service, 1965—. Technical and script advisor to British Broadcasting Corp. television series, "The Expert." Director, Welsh Medical Press Ltd. Military service: British Army, Royal Army Medical Corps, pathologist in Malaya, 1956-59; became captain; Royal Army Medical Corps Reserve, 1959-64.

MEMBER:

British Academy of Forensic Sciences, British Association of Forensic Medicine, Forensic Science Society, Medical Journalists, Association, Writers Guild of Great Britain, Crime Writers' Association.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Legal Aspects of Medical Practice, Churchill- Livingstone (London, England), 1972, 5th edition, Churchill-Livingstone (New York, NY), 1992.

(With Milton Helpern) Autopsy: The Memoirs of Milton Helpern, the World's Greatest Detective, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1977.

Discovering the Human Body: How Pioneers of Medicine Solved the Mysteries of the Body's Structure and Function, Lippincott & Cowell (New York, NY), 1980.

Lawyer's Guide to Forensic Medicine: A Handbook for Court and Chambers, foreword by Aubrey Myerson, W. Heinemann Medical Books (London, England), 1982.

The Coroner's Autopsy: A Guide to Non-criminal Autopsies for the General Pathologist, Churchill Livingstone (New York, NY), 1983.

Sudden Death in Infancy: The "Cot Death" Syndrome, foreword by the Countess of Limerick, Faber and Faber (London, England), 1983.

(With Cyril John Polson and D.J. Gee) The Essentials of Forensic Medicine, Pergamon Press (New York, NY), 1985.

(With Keith Simpson) Forensic Medicine, Arnold (Baltimore, MD), 1985, 3rd edition published as Knight's Forensic Pathology, with Pekka Saukko, Arnold (London, England), 2004.

Forensic Pathology, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1991.

(Revisor, with M.H. Singhal and V.B. Sahai) H.W.V. Cox, Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology with Photographs, Sketches, Illustrations, and Charts, 6th edition, Law Book Co. (Allhabad, India), 1998.

(Editor) The Estimation of the Time since Death in the Early Postmortem Period, Arnold (London, England), 2002.

FICTION

Lion Rampant: The Story of Owain and Nest (historical novel), Hale (London, England), 1972.

Madoc, Prince of America (historical novel), St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1977.

Brennan (novel), Hale (London, England), 2003.

(With Simon Beaufort, Ian Morson, Michael Jecks, Susanna Gregory, and Philip Gooden) The Tainted Relic, Simon & Schuster (London, England), 2005.

UNDER PSEUDONYM BERNARD PICTON: FICTION, EXCEPT AS INDICATED

The Lately Deceased, Jenkins (London, England), 1963.

The Thread of Evidence, Hale (London, England), 1965.

Mistress Murder, Hale (London, England), 1966.

Russian Roulette, Hale (London, England), 1968.

Policeman's Progress, Hale (London, England), 1969.

Tiger at Bay, Hale (London, England), 1971.

Murder, Suicide or Accident: The Forensic Pathologist at Work (nonfiction), St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1971.

The Expert, Sphere (London, England), 1976.

"CROWNER JOHN" MYSTERY SERIES

The Sanctuary Seeker, Pocket Books (London, England), 1998.

The Poisoned Chalice, Pocket Books (London, England), 1998.

Crowner's Quest, Pocket Books (London, England), 1999.

The Awful Secret, Simon & Schuster (London, England), 2000.

The Tinner's Corpse, Simon & Schuster (London, England), 2001.

The Grim Reaper, Simon & Schuster (London, England), 2002.

Fear in the Forest, Simon & Schuster (London, England), 2003.

The Witch Hunter, Simon & Schuster (London, England), 2004.

Figure of Hate, Simon & Schuster (London, England), 2005.

The Elixer of Death, Simon & Schuster (London, England), 2006.

RADIO AND TELEVISION DRAMAS PRODUCED BY BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION (BBC)

Corpus Delicti (radio drama), 1970.

Murder in Capitals (radio drama), 1971.

Deg i Dragwyddoldeb" (title means "Ten seconds to Eternity"; seven-episode television suspense serial in Welsh), 1972–73.

Contributor to volumes, including Gradwohl's Legal Medicine, edited by Francis E. Camps, John Wright, 1968; Recent Advances in Forensic Pathology, edited by Francks E. Camps, Churchill Livingstone (London, England), 1969; Legal Medicine Annual, edited by Cyril H. Wecht, Appleton, 1971; and Trauma and Legal Medicine, edited by Cesare G. Tedeschi, Saunders, 1974.

Author of three-episode documentary on forensic and archaeological study of human bones produced by BBC, 1972. Contributor of articles on legal medicine, criminology, Welsh politics, and allied topics to scientific journals, popular periodicals, and newspapers; has also reviewed books in categories within his fields.

SIDELIGHTS:

Writer Bernard Knight is a forensic pathologist specializing in legal medicine, an attorney, and a prolific author of fiction and nonfiction. He is the author of numerous books on forensic pathology and forensic medicine, as well as texts on procedures for conducting autopsies. This background in forensics serves him well as the author of the Crowner John novels, a series of mystery novels featuring Sir John de Wolfe, the first crowner, or coroner, appointed by King Richard the Lion-Hearted in twelfth-century England.

The Sanctuary Seeker, the first of the series to appear in the United States, finds de Wolfe summoned to investigate the case of a badly decomposed and unidentified body that has washed up on a riverbank. When the authorities arrest a man for the murder, de Wolfe believes they have captured the wrong person. When the body is identified as a young nobleman just back from the Crusades—the son of a wealthy squire—the sheriff is even more determined to hang the man in custody in order to gain favor with the squire. As the wrongly accused man's life remains at risk, de Wolfe searches for the real killer. "Knight realistically depicts life in the twelfth century" and his "gift for creating engaging and believable characters" make his books enjoyable to read, commented Booklist reviewer Emily Melton.

In A Crowner's Quest, de Wolfe is called from a Christmas Eve banquet, where he had been suffering the pains of dealing with his annoying and socialclimbing wife, to examine the body of cleric Robert de Hane, a victim of a garroting that someone has tried to conceal as a suicide by hanging. As Sir John's assistants, the burly squire Gwyn and literate clerk Thomas, investigate further, the crowner must contend with his brother-in-law, Sir Richard de Revelle, who wants the case declared a suicide. The tenor of the investigation changes when Thomas finds a treasure map among the papers in de Hane's possession. Meanwhile, a rebellion is brewing against King Richard, which de Wolfe must try to quash even as he works to solve the cleric's murder. Knight "gleefully renders daily life, circa 1194, from flea bites to lice to porkand- ale breakfasts," commented a Kirkus Reviews critic. In Figure of Hate, a dispute between manor lord Hugo Peverel and Frenchman Reginald de Charterai results in Hugo's death, and Sir John de Wolfe must investigate to determine who is responsible. Library Journal reviewer Rex E. Klett called this installment of the Crowner John series a "meaty and entertaining medieval historical."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 2003, Emily Melton, review of The Sanctuary Seeker, p. 1149.

Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2003, review of The Sanctuary Seeker, p. 273; April 1, 2004, review of A Crowner's Quest, p. 302; September 1, 2005, review of Figure of Hate, p. 944.

Kliatt, July, 2003, Janet Julian, review of The Grim Reaper, p. 59; July, 2004, Janet Julian, review of Fear in the Forest, p. 51.

Library Journal, November 1, 2005, Rex E. Klett, review of Figure of Hate, p. 56.

Publishers Weekly, October 31, 2005, review of The Tainted Relic, p. 35.