Thomas, Donald 1935- (Francis Selwyn, Donald Serrell Thomas)

PERSONAL:

Born August 20, 1935, in Brighton, England. Education: Attended Oxford University, 1956-60.

CAREER:

Writer. Adult Education Organizer, 1961-65; research assistant, British Broadcasting Corporation, London, England, 1966-71; University of Wales, Cardiff, began as professor, became emeritus professor.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Eric Gregory Award, 1962, for Points of Contact.

WRITINGS:

Points of Contact: A Collection of Poems, 1958-1961, Routledge (London, England), 1963.

NONFICTION

A Long Time Burning: The History of Literary Censorship in England, Routledge & Kegan Paul (London, England), 1969.

(Editor) Treason and Libel, Routledge & Kegan Paul (Boston, MA), 1972.

(Editor) A Selection from John Dryden, Longman (London, England), 1972.

(Editor) The Public Conscience, Routledge & Kegan Paul (Boston, MA), 1972.

Charge! Hurrah! Hurrah! A Life of Cardigan of Balaclava, Routledge & Kegan Paul (London, England), 1974.

Welcome to the Grand Hotel, Routledge & Kegan Paul (Boston, MA), 1975.

The Marquis De Sade, New York Graphic Society (Boston, MA), 1976.

Cochrane: Britannia's Last Sea-King, Viking Press (New York, NY), 1978, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 2002.

Swinburne: The Poet in His World, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1979, Ivan R. Dee (Chicago, IL), 1999.

Robert Browning, a Life within Life, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), 1982, Viking Press (New York, NY), 1983.

Cardigan: The Hero of Balaclava, Routledge & Kegan Paul (London, England), 1987.

(Editor) The Everyman Book of Victorian Verse: The Post-Romantics, Routledge (London, England), 1990.

Henry Fielding, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1991.

Honour among Thieves, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), 1991.

(Editor) The Everyman Book of Victorian Verse: The Pre-Raphaelites to the Nineties, C.E. Tuttle (New York, NY), 1993.

Lewis Carroll: A Portrait with Background, John Murray (London, England), 1996, Barnes & Noble Books (New York, NY), 1999.

The Victorian Underworld, New York University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

An Underworld at War: Spivs, Deserters, Racketeers and Civilians in the Second World War, John Murray (London, England), 2003, published as The Enemy Within: Hucksters, Racketeers, Deserters & Civilians during the Second World War, New York University Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Villains' Paradise: A History of Britain's Underworld, Pegasus (New York, NY), 2006.

FICTION

The Flight of the Eagle, Macmillan (London, England), 1975, Viking Press (New York, NY), 1976.

Captain Wunder, Viking Press (New York, NY), 1981.

The Blindfold Game, Deutsch (London, England), 1983.

The Day the Sun Rose Twice, Macmillan (London, England), 1985.

Dead Giveaway: Murder Avenged from the Grave, O'Mara (London, England), 1993.

"INSPECTOR SWAIN" SERIES

Belladonna: A Lewis Carroll Nightmare, Macmillan (London, England), 1983, published as Mad Hatter Summer, Viking (New York, NY), 1983.

Jekyll, Alias Hyde: A Variation, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1988.

The Ripper's Apprentice, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1989.

The Arrest of Scotland Yard, Macmillan (London England), 1993.

"SONNY TARRANT" SERIES

Dancing in the Dark, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1994.

Red Flowers for Lady Blue, Pan (London, England), 2000.

"SHERLOCK HOLMES" SERIES

The Secret Cases of Sherlock Holmes, Carroll & Graf Publishers (New York, NY), 1998.

Sherlock Holmes and the Running Noose, Macmillan (London, England), 2001.

Sherlock Holmes and the Voice from the Crypt and Other Tales, Carroll & Graf (New York, NY), 2002.

The Execution of Sherlock Holmes and Other New Adventures of the Great Detective, Pegasus (New York, NY), 2007.

"SERGEANT VERITY" SERIES; AS FRANCIS SELWYN

Cracksman on Velvet, Deutsch (London, England), 1974, published as Sergeant Verity and the Cracksman, Stein & Day (New York, NY), 1974.

Sergeant Verity and the Imperial Diamond, Deutsch (London, England), 1975, Stein & Day (New York, NY), 1976.

Sergeant Verity Presents His Compliments, Stein & Day (New York, NY), 1977.

Sergeant Verity and the Blood Royal, Stein & Day (New York, NY), 1979.

Sergeant Verity and the Swell Mob, Stein & Day (New York, NY), 1981.

The Hangman's Child, Robert Hale (London, England), 2000.

SIDELIGHTS:

Donald Thomas is a British writer whose fiction and nonfiction tends to focus on Victorian themes. Writing under his own name he has penned series fiction, including the "Inspector Swain" books, about a nineteenth-century Scotland Yard inspector; the "Sonny Tarrant" series, dealing with the adventures of a mid-twentieth-century gangland boss; and a group of books featuring Sherlock Holmes. Writing as Francis Selwyn, Thomas has also authored a half-dozen titles in the "Sergeant Verity" series, books set in Victorian London and dealing with the cases of a loveable Scotland Yard detective. Writing in the St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers, a contributor praised Thomas/Selwyn as a "most historically conscientious writer, using crime fiction as a way to portray history rather than using history as an interesting background for crime." The same critic went on to comment, "He does such an excellent job of creating suspense in both areas, that the reader is as interested in the historical as the criminal outcome."

Thomas began his literary life as a nonfiction writer, creating biographies of notable Englishmen, such as Lord Cardigan, who commanded the charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War and became known as the hero of Balaclava. He has also turned his hand to critical biographies of British writers and poets. His Robert Browning, a Life within Life, details both the events in the life and analyzes the major works of that British poet, who lived from 1812 to 1889. A major Victorian poet, Browning lived a somewhat uneventful life as compared with some of his peers, whose turbulent domestic situations make for good biography. Despite this lack of dramatic material, however, Thomas "cleverly and convincingly … [found] other means of stimulating the reader," according to Atlantic reviewer Phoebe-Lou Adams. Thomas does so, as Adams noted, by showing how advanced Browning's poetry was in both form and content. For the same reviewer, Robert Browning, a Life within Life was a "good … admirably brisk biography." Thomas performs the same service for an earlier British writer in his Henry Fielding, a "superior biography," as Publishers Weekly contributor Genevieve Stuttaford commented. Thomas demonstrates the power of Fielding not only in the novels Tom Jones and Joseph Andrews but also in his work as a playwright and journalist and as a judge on the bench fighting crime.

The creator of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland comes under Thomas's critical inspection in Lewis Carroll: A Portrait with Background, an "attempt to elucidate the paradox [of Carroll]," as Morton N. Cohen noted in Victorian Studies. Born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Carroll was a man of many talents, an Oxford mathematics don, a minister, an inventor, as well as an author, artist, and photographer. Cohen concluded: "While Thomas offers us no new insights into Charles Dodgson—alas, the paradox stubbornly persists—the promise of the book's subtitle fulfills itself. The historical splashes deserve a read." A reviewer for the Economist praised the "pervasive sense of contextual irony in Dodgson's life [that] saves Mr Thomas's story from chronological fatigue." For a contributor to Publishers Weekly the same work was "lucid, coherent, [and] rather slick."

Thomas has also written a number of nonfiction books dealing with crime and underworld activity from Victorian times through the 1970s. His 1998 title The Victorian Underworld focuses on nineteenth-century England. Michael J. Childs, writing in the Canadian Journal of History, while finding that there was little new in Thomas's survey, also observed that the author "is an excellent and often elegant writer with a novelist's eye." A reviewer for the Economist felt that Thomas "is particularly effective in showing how social evil and different sorts of crimes were linked." The same reviewer also thought the book was "a wonderful profile of Victorian London." Similar praise came from Booklist contributor Jay Freeman, who termed the work "a vivid portrait of a seamy and brutal but … fascinating underside" of the Victorian world, as well as a "solid piece of social history."

Thomas carries his survey of criminal activity forward in An Underworld at War: Spivs, Deserters, Racketeers and Civilians in the Second World War, "a carefully worded study … that opens a door on a world which has usually been ignored," according to a Contemporary Review critic. Ian Thompson, writing in the Spectator, also had praise for An Underworld at War, noting that the author "has chronicled one of the last untold stories of the war, and he does so with scholarship as well as humour." Likewise, History Today writer Juliet Gardiner termed the same book "an exhaustive and sometimes intriguing litany of the ways in which a British citizen could get on the wrong side of file law during the Second World War." In Villains' Paradise: A History of Britain's Underworld, Thomas investigates similar criminal activity in postwar England in a work that is, according to a Kirkus Reviews critic, "comprehensive to a fault." Similar praise was offered by a Publishers Weekly critic, who called Villains' Paradise a "wonderfully colorful history, told with all the relish of the true-crime aficionado in a very British, almost Dickensian" manner.

Though Thomas began as a nonfiction writer, he turned also, in 1974, to fiction. Writing under the name of Francis Selwyn, he created the "Sergeant Verity" series, featuring Sergeant William Clarence Verity, a somewhat overweight and dogged detective who leads the reader through the slums and underworld of Victorian London in search of his culprits. In the first book in the series, Sergeant Verity and the Cracksman, Verity pursues a particularly inventive burglar of upper-class background, while in Sergeant Verity and the Imperial Diamond, he "faces the heathen society of mutinous India in the 1850s and comes out ahead," as the contributor to the St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers noted. Throughout the series Thomas, writing as Selwyn, maintains a high level of historical accuracy; Verity, thought somewhat plodding, is also a humorous character and one who can make surprising connections to solve his cases. The author also presents a cast of returning characters, from fellow police officers to members of the underworld. The 2000 addition to the series, The Hangman's Child, features an innocent man about to be hanged at Newgate Prison, or, as it is known in England, Newgate Gaol.

Writing under his own name, Thomas has produced several other series. The "Inspector Swain" novels feature another member of Scotland Yard, Alfred Swain, as well as actual historical figures from Victorian England. The series opens with Belladonna: A Lewis Carroll Nightmare (published in the United States as Mad Hatter Summer). Thomas deals with aspects of Jack the Ripper in The Ripper's Apprentice and with the fictional schizophrenic from the pen of Robert Louis Stevenson in Jekyll, Alias Hyde: A Variation. In the fourth book in the series, The Arrest of Scotland Yard, Swain investigates a pair of victims of suspicious deaths, one of whom might be the illegitimate son of the poet Lord Byron.

Thomas's "Sonny Tarrant" novels are set in postwar London. The first novel in the series, Dancing in the Dark, was, according to Booklist contributor Wes Lukowsky, a "richly atmospheric tale" about gangland murders. Investigators from Scotland Yard think the deaths may be linked to the crime boss and black marketer Tarrant. Lukowsky went on to term the novel a "crackling, aptly titled yarn." The second novel in the series, Red Flowers for Lady Blue, is set in 1936, and here Tarrant again must deal with some small-time criminals who want to break into the big time by carving a niche out of his empire.

Thomas has also written several collections of short stories in honor of the celebrated fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes. Thomas's premise is that instead of quitting detection in 1903, Holmes was actually working secretly for Scotland Yard on very sensitive cases. The first, The Secret Cases of Sherlock Holmes, presents cases from the death of a prostitute to the mysterious death of a bicyclist. Whitney Scott, writing in Booklist, felt that "fans of the Baker Street duo will delight in this collection of cases." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly, however, thought the stories "lack both clarity and credibility." The second volume, Sherlock Holmes and the Running Noose, features further tales, supposedly culled from a tin box containing these unknown cases. Real crime cases from the time and actual historical figures, including Oscar Wilde, are included in the adventures. Further true-life crime cases are presented in Sherlock Holmes and the Voice from the Crypt and Other Tales, including a mysterious message from a dead man and a suspicious hunting accident. Booklist contributor Scott commented of this title, "Sherlockians old and new should relish the wit and elegance of Thomas' contrivances." More praise came from a Publishers Weekly reviewer who wrote, "The fidelity with which Thomas portrays two of literature's most beloved characters puts him among the leaders in the … Holmes pastiche field." With his 2007 collection of five longer stories, The Execution of Sherlock Holmes and Other New Adventures of the Great Detective, Thomas has Holmes cracking a German code in "The Case of the Greek Key" and helping an unfairly dismissed servant in "The Case of the Phantom Chambermaid," the "high point" of the collection according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer, who also thought all the tales "offer gripping plots and … evoke the flavor of [Conan] Doyle's original stories of the great detective." Likewise, Booklist contributor Scott praised the "heart-pounding adventures and mind-pleasing puzzles" in this collection.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers, 4th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1996.

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, April, 2005, Robert Mackay, review of The Enemy Within: Hucksters, Racketeers, Deserters & Civilians during the Second World War, p. 555.

American Scholar, winter, 1992, Bruce M. Gans, review of Henry Fielding: A Biography, p. 146.

Atlantic, March, 1983, Phoebe-Lou Adams, review of Robert Browning, a Life within Life, p. 116.

Biography, summer, 2007, Andrew O'Hagan, review of Villains' Paradise: A History of Britain's Underworld, p. 452.

Bookbird, winter, 1996, review of Lewis Carroll: A Portrait with Background. p. 61.

Booklist, January 15, 1994, Wes Lukowsky, review of Dancing in the Dark, p. 903; June 1, 1998, Whitney Scott, review of The Secret Cases of Sherlock Holmes, p. 1735; August, 1998, Jay Freeman, review of The Victorian Underworld, p. 1937; February 1, 2002, Whitney Scott, review of Sherlock Holmes and the Voice from the Crypt and Other Tales, p. 927; April 1, 2007, Whitney Scott, review of The Execution of Sherlock Holmes and Other New Adventures of the Great Detective, p. 33.

Canadian Journal of History, April, 1999, Michael J. Childs, review of The Victorian Underworld, p. 129.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, February, 1999, L.J. Satre, review of The Victorian Underworld, p. 1124.

Christian Science Monitor, March 16, 1983, review of Robert Browning, a Life within Life, p. 15; February 29, 1984, Bruce Allen, review of Mad Hatter Summer, p. 19.

Contemporary Review, July, 1999, review of Swinburne: The Poet in His World, p. 52; January, 2000, review of The Victorian Underworld, p. 52; January, 2004, review of An Underworld at War: Spivs, Deserters, Racketeers and Civilians in the Second World War, p. 62.

Economist, September 4, 1982, review of Robert Browning, a Life within Life p. 93; September 14, 1996, review of Lewis Carroll, p. 6; April 18, 1998, review of The Victorian Underworld, p. 13.

History Today, July, 1998, Clive Emsley, review of The Victorian Underworld, p. 59; May, 2003, review of An Underworld at War, p. 84; November, 2003, Juliet Gardiner, An Underworld at War, p. 80.

Journal of Popular Culture, winter, 2001, Michael Schoenecke, review of The Victorian Underworld. p. 209.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2001, review of Sherlock Holmes and the Voice from the Crypt and Other Tales, p. 1727; February 1, 2007, review of Villains' Paradise, p. 117; April 1, 2007, review of The Execution of Sherlock Holmes and Other New Adventures of the Great Detective.

Library Journal, June 15, 1981, review of Captain Wunder, p. 1324; January 1, 1983, review of Robert Browning, a Life within Life, p. 53; November 1, 1983, review of Mad Hatter Summer, p. 2101; September 1, 1989, Rex E. Klett, review of The Ripper's Apprentice, p. 219; February 1, 1991, Joseph Rosenblum, review of Henry Fielding, p. 79; January 1994, Rex E. Klett, review of Dancing in the Dark, p. 170; August 1998, Michael Rogers, review of The Victorian Underworld, p. 113.

Los Angeles Times, March 6, 1983, Andrew Rolle, review of Robert Browning, a Life within Life, p. 5.

New Law Journal, December 20, 1991, James Morton, review of Honour among Thieves, p. 1751.

New Leader, May 2, 1983, Phoebe Pettingell, review of Robert Browning, a Life within Life, p. 13.

New Republic, June 20, 1983, Robert Langbaum, review of Robert Browning, a Life within Life, p. 36.

New Statesman & Society, April 3, 1992, Nicolas Walter, review of The Marquis De Sade, p. 45.

New York Review of Books, September 29, 1983, Irvin Ehrenpreis, review of Robert Browning, a Life within Life, p. 41.

New York Times, February 21, 1983, review of Robert Browning, a Life within Life, p. 15.

New York Times Book Review, March 8, 1981, Newgate Callendar, review of Sergeant Verity and the Swell Mob, p. 29; July 7, 1991, Pat Rogers, review of Henry Fielding, p. 9.

Publishers Weekly, October 24, 1980, Barbara A. Bannon, review of Sergeant Verity and the Swell Mob, p. 36; May 22, 1981, review of Captain Wunder, p. 71; December 24, 1982, review of Robert Browning, a Life within Life, p. 54; October 14, 1983, Barbara A. Bannon, review of Mad Hatter Summer, p. 44; November 25, 1988, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of Jekyll, Alias Hyde: A Variation, p. 57; July 7, 1989, Sybil Steinberg, review of The Ripper's Apprentice, p. 52; February 1, 1991, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of Henry Fielding, p. 70; November 15, 1993, review of Dancing in the Dark, p. 73; November 3, 1997, review of Lewis Carroll, p. 73; May 4, 1998, review of The Secret Cases of Sherlock Holmes, p. 207; July 20, 1998, review of The Victorian Underworld, p. 198; January 28, 2002, review of Sherlock Holmes and the Voice from the Crypt and Other Tales, p. 273; December 11, 2006, review of Villains' Paradise, p. 55; March 12, 2007, review of The Execution of Sherlock Holmes and Other New Adventures of the Great Detective, p. 40.

Reference & Research Book News, February, 1999, review of The Victorian Underworld, p. 106.

Review of English Studies, November, 1992, Marion Shaw, review of The Everyman Book of Victorian Verse: The Post-Romantics, p. 579.

Saturday Review, May 1, 1983, William Cole, review of Robert Browning, a Life within Life, p. 43.

School Librarian, March 1983, review of Robert Browning, a Life within Life, p. 82.

Spectator, March 28, 1992, Leslie Mitchell, review of The Marquis De Sade, p. 36; August 16, 1997, Patrick Skene Catling, review of Lewis Carroll, p. 37; April 18, 1998, Jonathan Keates, review of The Victorian Underworld, p. 36; August 9, 2003, Ian Thomson, "Spivs and Shysters," p. 40.

Times Educational Supplement, April 10, 1992, review of Nothing but Revenge, p. 27.

Times Higher Education Supplement, February 7, 1997, Ronald Warwick, review of Lewis Carroll, p. 20; December 19, 2003, Jeffrey Richards, review of An Underworld at War, p. 38.

Times Literary Supplement, December 1, 1989, Peter Reading, review of Robert Browning, a Lifewithin Life, p. 1344; January 4, 1991, Ian A. Bell, review of Henry Fielding, p. 6; May 1, 1992, John Weightman, review of The Marquis De Sade, p. 5; August 8, 1997, Hugh Haughton, review of Lewis Carroll, p. 23; September 4, 1998, Peter Keating, review of The Victorian Underworld, p. 24; October 3, 2003, Angus Calder, review of An Underworld at War, p. 24.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), September 3, 1989, review of The Ripper's Apprentice, p. 4.

Victorian Studies, autumn, 1998, Morton N. Cohen, review of Lewis Carroll, p. 182.

Washington Post, February 5, 1984, Faiga Levine, review of Mad Hatter Summer, p. 5.

ONLINE

Fantastic Fiction,http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/ (January 20, 2008), "Donald Thomas."

XS4ALL,http://www.Xs4all.nl/ (January 20, 2008), "Donald Thomas."