I am sure regular attendees at the Bodies From The Library will welcome the return to the stage this year of an old favourite speaker, the ever entertaining Simon Brett. We can also look forward to the debut appearance of the erudite Catherine Cooke who will be combining her knowledge of Sherlock Holmes and Margery Allingham to discuss how the latter was influenced in her Golden Age fiction by the legacy of arguably detective fiction’s most famous detective.

Simon Brett is the author of over ninety books, most of them crime novels including the Charles Paris, Mrs Pargeter, Fethering and Blotto & Twinks series. For radio and television he wrote After Henry and No Commitments. He is a Past President of the Detection Club and in 2014 was awarded the CWA Diamond Dagger for Excellence.

Catherine Cooke

Catherine studied French and German at Bedford College, then Library Studies at the University College, London.  She worked for Westminster Libraries from 1978 to her retirement in 2022.  She was awarded Fellowship in the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in 2006 and won the BIC/cilip RFID Innovation in Libraries Award for 2009.  She was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to libraries in 2020.  Catherine has managed Westminster’s Sherlock Holmes Collection since 1982.  She joined The Sherlock Holmes Society of London in 1980 and has served on Council for many years, including as Chairman.  She was awarded the Arthur Conan Doyle Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award in January 2025.  She is also a long-standing member of The Margery Allingham Society, serving on Committee.