Robert Barnard

Robert Barnard (23 November 1936 – 19 September 2013) was an English crime writer, critic and lecturer. In addition to over 40 books published under his own name, he also published four books under the pseudonym Bernard Bastable.

Life and work Robert Barnard was born on 23 November 1936 at Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex. He was educated at the Colchester Royal Grammar School and at Balliol College, Oxford.

He spent five years (1961-1965) as an academic in the English Department at the University of New England, at Armidale, New South Wales, in Australia.

His first crime novel, Death of an Old Goat, was published in 1974. The novel was written while he was a lecturer at the University of Tromsø in Norway. He went on to write more than 40 other books and numerous short stories. As "Bernard Bastable", he published two standalone novels and two alternate history books, featuring Wolfgang Mozart – who had here survived to old age – as a detective.

Barnard was inducted into the prestigious Detection Club in 1991, and was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2003 by the Crime Writers' Association for a lifetime of achievement. He said that his favourite crime writer was Agatha Christie. In 1980 he published a critique of her work titled A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie.

Barnard died on 19 September 2013. He and his wife Louise lived in Yorkshire.