Bill James (15 August 1929 – 17 June 2023) is a pseudonym of Allan James Tucker, a Welsh

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

. He also wrote under his own name and the pseudonyms ''David Craig'' and ''Judith Jones''. He was a reporter with the

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...

and various other

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s after serving with the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

He was married, with four children, and lived in South Wales. The bulk of his output under the Bill James pseudonym is the ''Harpur and Iles'' series. Colin Harpur is a Detective Chief Inspector and Desmond Iles is the Assistant Chief Constable in an unnamed coastal city in southwestern England. Harpur and Iles are complemented by an evolving cast of other recurring characters on both sides of the law. The books are characterized by a grim humour and a bleak view of the relationship between the public, the police force and the criminal element. The first few are designated "A Detective Colin Harpur Novel" but as the series progressed they began to be published with the designation "A Harpur & Iles Mystery". His novel ''Whose Little Girl are You'', written under the "David Craig" pseudonym, was filmed as '' The Squeeze'', starring

Stacy Keach Walter Stacy Keach Jr. (born June 2, 1941) is an American actor and narrator. He has played mainly dramatic roles throughout his career, often in law enforcement or as a private detective. His most prominent role was as Mickey Spillane's fictiona ...

, Edward Fox and

David Hemmings David Edward Leslie Hemmings (18 November 1941 – 3 December 2003) was an English actor and director. He is best remembered for his roles in British films and television programmes of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly the 1966 mystery film ' ...

. The fourth ''Harpur & Iles'' novel, ''Protection'', was televised by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

in 1996 as ''Harpur & Iles'', starring

Aneirin Hughes Aneirin Hughes (born Aneurin Hughes, 8 May 1958) is a Welsh actor and singer known for playing Chief Superintendent Brian Prosser in the BBC4 Welsh police drama ''Y Gwyll, Hinterland''. He won a Best Actor BAFTA Cymru (or BAFTA Wales) for his ap ...

as Harpur and

Hywel Bennett Hywel Thomas Bennett (8 April 1944 – 24 July 2017) was a Welsh film and television actor. He had a lead role in ''The Family Way'' (1966) and played the titular "thinking man's layabout" James Shelley in the television sitcom '' Shelley'' (1 ...

as Iles.

Works as Bill James ("Detective Colin Harpur" and "Harpur & Iles" novels)

* ''You'd Better Believe It'', 1985 * ''The Lolita Man'', 1986 * ''Halo Parade'', 1987 * ''Protection'' 1988, also published as ''Harpur & Iles'' 1992 * ''Come Clean'', 1989 * ''Take'', 1990 * ''Club'', 1991 * ''Astride a Grave'', 1991 * ''Gospel'', 1992 * ''Roses, Roses'', 1993 * ''In Good Hands'', 1994 * ''The Detective is Dead'', 1995 * ''Top Banana'', 1996 * ''Panicking Ralph'', 1997 * ''Lovely Mover'', 1998 * ''Eton Crop'', 1999 * ''Kill Me'', 2000 * ''Pay Days'', 2001 * ''Naked at the Window'', 2002 * ''The Girl with the Long Back'', 2003 * ''Easy Streets'', 2004 * ''Wolves of Memory'', 2005 * ''Girls'', 2006 * ''Pix'', 2007 * ''In the Absence of Iles'', 2008 * ''Hotbed'', 2009 * ''I Am Gold'', 2010 * ''Vacuum'', 2011 * ''Undercover'', 2012 * ''Play Dead'', 2013 * ''Disclosures'', 2014 * ''Blaze Away'', 2015 * ''First Fix Your Alibi'', 2016 * ''Close'', 2017 * ''Hitmen I Have Known'', 2019

Works as Bill James ("Simon Abelard" novels)

* ''Split'', 2001 * ''A Man's Enemies'', 2003

Works as Bill James (other)

* ''The Last Enemy'', 1997 * ''Double jeopardy'' (a ''Kerry Lake'' novel - see Judith Jones, below), 2002 * ''Middleman'', 2002 * ''Between Lives'', 2003 * ''Making Stuff Up'', 2006 * ''The Sixth Man and other Stories'' (short stories, includes ''Harpur and Iles'' stories), 2006 * ''Letters from Carthage'', 2007 * ''Off-street Parking'', 2008 * ''Full of Money'' 2009 * ''World War Two Will Not Take Place'' 2011

Works as David Craig ("Roy Rickman" novels)

* ''The Alias Man'', 1968 (1968) * ''Message Ends'', 1969 (1969) * ''Contact Lost'', 1970 (1970)

Works as David Craig ("Bellecroix and Roath" novels)

* ''Young Men May Die'', 1970 (1970) * ''A Walk at Night'', 1971 (1971)

Works as David Craig ("Brade and Jenkins" novels)

* ''Forget it'', (1995) * ''The Tattoed Detective'', (1998) * ''Torch'', (1999) * ''Bay City'', (2000)

Works as David Craig ("Sally Bithron" novels)

* ''Hear me Talking to You'', (2005) * ''Tip Top'', (2006)

Works as David Craig (other)

* ''Up from the Grave'', 1971 (1971) * ''Double Take'', 1972 (1972) * ''Bolthole'' (US title: ''Knifeman''), 1973 (1973) * ''A Dead Liberty'', 1974 (1974) * ''Whose Little Girl are You?'' (US title: '' The Squeeze''), 1974 (1974) * ''The Albion Case'', 1975 (1975) * ''Faith, Hope and Death'', 1976 (1976)

Works as Judith Jones ("Kerry Lake" novels)

* ''Baby Talk'', (1998) * ''After Melissa'', (1999)

Works as James Tucker (fiction)

* ''Equal Partners'', (1960) * ''The Right Hand Man'', (1961) * ''Burster'', (1966) * ''Blaze of Riot'', 1979 (1979) * ''The King's Friends'', (1982)

Works as James Tucker (non-fiction)

* ''Honourable Estates'', (1966) * ''The Novels of Anthony Powell'', 1976 (1976) Dates given without parentheses are the Library of Congress publication dates, usually the first US publication, except where the books do not (yet) appear in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. The dates in parentheses are the copyright dates, taken from the actual books when available.

References

* Library of Congress Online Catalog (birth and publication dates) * Liner notes for ''Protection'' (biographical information) * John Lennard, 'Of Policemen and Poussin: Bill James's Dance to the Muzak of Crime', in ''Of Sex and Faerie: Further essays on Genre Fiction'' (Tirril: Humanities-Ebooks, 2010), pp. 10–46 {{DEFAULTSORT:James, Bill Welsh crime novelists 1929 births 2023 deaths British male novelists 20th-century Welsh novelists 21st-century Welsh novelists British male journalists Daily Mirror people Royal Air Force personnel 20th-century British male writers 21st-century British male writers