The Complete Father Brown Stories

The Complete Father Brown Stories

Summary

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown mysteries, BBC One Daytime has commissioned a new 10-part drama series for January 2013 to bring the priest-turned-detective back to life. BBC Books will be publishing a new edition of the original and complete short stories to tie-in to transmission.

Set in the early-twentieth century, Father Brown's world is quintessentially English; crime scenes await in country houses, rural parish churches and quaint gardens as well as foggy London streets and shadowy railway stations. Father Brown may be a kindly cleric, but his bumbling nature disguises a detective mind to rival Sherlock Holmes...

The character of Father Brown, brought to life by Mark Williams, is based on a real parish priest and the idea that priests, through hearing Confession, know the worst of human nature more than anyone, including the police. Father Brown uses his experiences to put himself into the mind of the criminal to solve each mystery and catch the perpetrators.

About the author

G K Chesterton

G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was an artist, philosopher, columnist, arts critic and prolific writer. A very large man of 6'4" and 21 stone, Chesterton also had a 'colossal genius' according to his friend George Bernard Shaw - and his work, particularly The Man Who Was Thursday and the Father Brown stories, has had an astounding impact on English fiction. Chesterton died of heart failure in his home in 1936, and was given a Requiem Mass in Westminster Cathedral.
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