| Father Brown was a creation of GK Chesterton, who was the foremost Christian apologist (first Anglican, then Catholic) in Great Britain in the first half of the century, and a widely read columnist. He wrote some novels, some poetry, some literary criticsm, and various books on Christian themes. He was close to GB Shaw, and they maintained a friendship even while arguing all the time. At one time, London literary life was abuzz with GB and GK, as representing modernism and traditionalism. Father Brown was extremely popular at one time, and is highly regarded by connoisseurs of detective fiction even now.....I myself have read little detective fiction, comparatively. Many Holmes stories, a little Hammett,some Poe, some Father Brown, but no Agatha Christie, only a tiny bit of Mickey Spillane, not much else....... |
