Georges Simenon was born in Liège, Belgium in 1903. An intrepid traveller with a profound interest in people, Simenon strove on and off the page to understand, rather than to judge, the human condition in all its shades. His novels include the Inspector Maigret series and a richly varied body of wider work united by its evocative power, its economy of means, and its penetrating psychological insight. He is among the most widely read writers in the global canon. He died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he had lived for the latter part of his life.

Georges Simenon

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Four full-cast dramatisations starring Maurice Denham as Inspector Maigret and Michael Gough as his creator Georges Simenon.  'Maigret and the Minister', 'Maigret and the Hundred Gibbets', 'Maigret and Monsieur Charles', and 'Maigret and the Madman of Bergerac'.   Georges Simenon and his masterful inspector, Jules Maigret, look back together over four of their greatest cases   Where is the vital report that holds the key to the fate of the French government? What is the secret behind the mysterious suicide in Bremen? Who is responsible for the sudden disappearance of one of Paris’s best known solicitors? And will the demented double murderer strike again?

Maigret And The Minister & Other Stories

Four gripping dramatisations starring Maurice Denham as Maigret and Michael Gough as his creator Georges Simenon; 'Maigret Goes to School', 'Maigret and the Old Lady', 'Maigret Hesitates' and 'The Patience of Maigret'   The world’s best-known French detective, Jules Maigret, talks to his creator Georges Simenon about four intriguing cases in these full-cast dramatisations that have been specially adapted for radio from the original novels.   There are two trips to the seaside for Maigret as he attempts to help a schoolmaster fight off an unfair charge of murder and soothes the fears of an elderly widow who fears she is about to be poisoned. An anonymous letter throws up a baffling problem: someone is about to be murdered, but who? Finally Maigret’s old bête noire, Manuel Palmari, has been found murdered. Will that help Maigret get to the bottom of his criminal empire at last?

Maigret Hesitates & Other Stories

Four gripping dramatisations starring Maurice Denham as Maigret and Michael Gough as his creator Georges Simenon   'Maigret Goes Home', 'Maigret Sets a Trap', Maigret at the Crossroads' and 'Maigret Has Doubts'   The world’s best-known French detective, Jules Maigret, talks to his creator Georges Simenon about four intriguing cases in these full-cast dramatisations that have been specially adapted for radio from the original novels.   Things are never the same when you go back, as Maigret discovers when an anonymous letter draws him to his place of birth. Montmartre is the scene of his next case, but can Maigret’s carefully prepared approach prevent the latest in a line of serial killings? A murder with unusual characteristics finds Maigret at the remote Three Widows Crossroads, and finally he regrets being forced to suppress his instincts about the indecipherable Josset case.

Maigret Sets A Trap & Other Stories

A recently divorced actor and a no less lonely woman meet by chance in a New York diner. The city - its bars, its cheap motels and its rented rooms - becomes the cinematic setting of the couple's escalating and mysterious relationship. A move against desperation and drift, their affair nevertheless glows with an urgent and compulsive romance. 
 
Georges Simenon was one of the most popular twentieth-century novelists. Three Bedrooms in Manhattan - closely based on the story of his own meeting with his second wife - is his most passionate and revealing work.

Three Bedrooms in Manhattan

Maurice Denham is the famous French detective Maigret and Michael Gough is his creator Georges Simenon in these five classic radio dramatisations. 
 
Parisian detective Jules Maigret first appeared in print in 1931, and went on to feature in 76 novels and 28 short stories. An enduringly popular character, his adventures have been adapted on radio and television, most recently in ITV’s series starring Rowan Atkinson. 
 
In these radio plays, Maigret and Simenon look back over five of their most memorable cases. An anonymous letter sends Maigret back to the village where he grew up, Inspector Lapointe falls in love for the first time – and kills someone for the first time, and a model train seller tells Maigret that his wife is trying to poison him. Plus, how is the death of a Count linked to a collection of love letters? And can Maigret’s carefully prepared plan prevent the latest in a string of serial killings? 
 
First broadcast in 1976 on BBC Radio 4, the episodes included in this collection are: 
 
Maigret Goes Home 
Maigret in Montmartre 
Maigret has Scruples 
Maigret in Society 
Maigret Sets a Trap 
 
Classic Radio Crime: presenting vintage detectives for your investigation!

Maigret: Collected Cases

Classic Radio Crime

Nicholas Le Prevost stars as the French detective in four new BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatizations  These new adaptations of classic stories find Maigret recreating four memorable cases for his creator Georges Simenon.  In ‘Maigret: A Man’s Head’, a convicted man is allowed to escape, then followed by police investigating a double murder. Maigret finds himself entering glittering society and a war of nerves with a suspect.   ‘The Bar on the Seine’ sees a condemned man telling Maigret about a riverside drinking hole where a murderer lurks undetected. Pursuing the clue, Maigret witnesses a death and discovers a much older crime...  ‘My Friend Maigret’ finds Maigret investigating the murder of a tramp on the French island of Porquerolles - but he is hampered by the attentions of Inspector Pyke of Scotland Yard.   Finally, in ‘Madame Maigret’s Own Case’, when Madame Maigret makes a friend outside her dentist’s office, she stumbles upon the resolution of one of her husband’s most stubborn investigations.

Maigret A Man's Head & Other Stories

Amidst the fury of a relentless snowstorm, the loyalties of two friends are put to the ultimate test, with fatal consequences. 
 
In the shadows of 1960s Paris, a woman on the brink of despair is offered a chance at redemption. But as the haunting truth of her past begins to emerge, it threatens to consume her. 
 
In a secluded hotel, an adulterous affair spirals into a terrible nightmare that will transform the couple’s lives forever. 
 
This new edition brings together Georges Simenon’s most gripping psychological novels from the 1960s, capturing the raw essence of human frailty and resilience during a time of profound social upheaval, and revealing the chilling brilliance of Simenon’s romans durs.

The Hand

And Other Novels

Nobody mentioned the victims, or the terror that had gripped the town. For the last twenty days it had rained and between the usual quiet conversations and card games, only the trickle of water and the air of cold fear could be detected. A serial killer stalks La Rochelle's cobbled streets - and by the most unfortunate of occurrences, Kachoudas, a poor timid tailor and a newcomer to the town, knows exactly who it is... 
 
One of Georges Simenon's darkest novels, The Hatter's Ghosts is a riveting portrait of murder and subterfuge, at once a cat and mouse thriller and an acute physiological study of the criminal imagination.

The Hatter's Ghosts

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'For personal reasons, or for reasons I don't know myself, I began feeling old, and I began keeping notebooks. I was nearing the age of sixty' 
 
Georges Simenon's autobiographical notebooks, in which he recorded his observations, experiences, anxieties and 'all the silly ideas that pass through my head', are one of the most candid self-portraits of a writer ever put to paper. Here, as the celebrated author ruthlessly examines his tortuous writing methods, his past, his fame, his intimate relationships and his fears of ageing, the result is an unsparing, often painfully revealing insight into a man trying both to find and to escape himself. 
 
'As revealed in these notebooks, Simenon's is a shrewd, lucid mind ... the balance tips toward the real, the immediate, the mysteries of human complexity above all ... Utterly unpretentious' The New York Times

When I Was Old

After many years spent at sea, Captain Lannec finally manages to buy his own vessel, but not without the financial help of his in-laws, the Pitards. In return, his wife insists on accompanying him on the ship's first voyage and her presence on board makes him feel increasingly uneasy, especially after the threatening anonymous note he received before setting sail from Rouen. 
 
 First published in 1935, The Pitards was one of the first novels Simenon wrote when he shelved his famous Maigret series in order to strike out in a new direction and make a name for himself as a literary writer rather than a creator of genre fiction. This captivating evocation of life at sea revolves around the claustrophobia of class snobbery and the tense unravelling of relationships conducted at close quarters, powerful themes that Simenon would return to throughout his writing career.

The Pitards

'You'll get used to things, you'll see. But you have to watch very carefully what you say and what you do.' 
 
Adil Bey is an outsider. Newly arrived as Turkish consul at a run-down Soviet port on the Black Sea, he receives only suspicion and hostility from the locals. His one intimacy is a growing, wary relationship with his Russian secretary Sonia, who he watches silently in her room opposite his apartment. But this is Stalin's world before the war, and nothing is as it seems. Georges Simenon's most starkly political work, The People Opposite is a tour de force of slow-burn tension. 
 
'Irresistible... read him at your peril, avoid him at your loss' Sunday Times

The People Opposite

I can still see Simenon coming into my office the next day, pleased with himself, displaying even more self-confidence, if possible, than before, but nevertheless with a touch of anxiety in his eyes . . . He trumpeted these last words as if they were a sensational discovery. 'Making it seem truer than life, that's the crux of it. Well, I've made you truer than life.'

Maigret's Memoirs

Inspector Maigret

'Feels incredibly modern... it is brutal, frank about sex and violence, and will make your flesh creep' Ian Rankin 
 
A brilliant new translation of Simenon's critically acclaimed masterpiece. 
 
'And always the dirty snow, the heaps of snow that look rotten, with black patches and embedded garbage ... unable to cover the filth.' 
 
Nineteen-year-old Frank - thug, thief, son of a brothel owner - gets by surprisingly well despite living in a city under military occupation, but a warm house and a full stomach are not enough to make him feel truly alive in such a climate of deceit and betrayal. During a bleak, unending winter, he embarks on a string of violent and sordid crimes that set him on a path from which he can never return. Georges Simenon's matchless novel is a brutal, compelling portrayal of a world without pity; a devastating journey through a psychological no-man's land. 
 
'Among the best novels of the twentieth century' New Yorker 
 
'An astonishing work' John Banville 
 
'So noir it makes Raymond Chandler look beige' Independent

The Snow Was Dirty

'Powerful . . . unputdownably gripping' Guardian 
 
'The island itself. Its throbbing heat as if in a belljar under the sun, the scorpion in his son's bed, the deafening sound of cicadas' 
 
During his first holiday on the island of Porquerolles Dr Mahé caught a glimpse of something irresistible. As the memory continues to haunt him, he falls prey to a delusion that may offer an escape from his conventional existence - or may destroy him. This is the first English translation of The Mahé Circle, Simenon's dark, malevolent depiction of an ordinary man trapped in mundanity and consumed by obsession. 
 
'Extraordinary . . . Simenon is one of the most important writers of the 20th century' Independent

The Mahé Circle

A new translation of George Simenon's taut, devastating psychological novel set in American suburbia. The inspiration for the new play by award-winning playwright David Hare. 
 
'I had begun, God knows why, tearing a corner off of everyday truth, begun seeing myself in another kind of mirror, and now the whole of the old, more or less comfortable truth was falling to pieces' 
 
Confident and successful, New York advertising executive Ray Sanders takes what he wants from life. When he goes missing in a snow storm in Connecticut one evening, his closest friend begins to reassess his loyalties, gambling Ray's fate and his own future. 
 
'The romans durs are extraordinary: tough, bleak, offhandedly violent, suffused with guilt and bitterness, redolent of place . . . utterly unsentimental, frightening in the pitilessness of their gaze, yet wonderfully entertaining' John Banville 
 
'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian 
 
'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independen

This new selection of stories featuring Inspector Maigret - three of which are published in English for the first time - takes the detective from a mysterious death in a Cannes hotel to a love triangle in the Loire countryside and a bitter rivalry within a Parisian family. 
 
Written during the Second World War, just a few years after Simenon had published what was intended to be his last novel featuring Inspector Maigret, these tales of human frailty and deceit distil the atmosphere, themes and psychological intensity that make Simenon's famous detective series so compelling. 
 
Translated by Ros Schwartz 
 
'Not just the world's bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend . . . he exposes secrets and crimes not by forensic wizardry, but by the melded powers of therapist, philosopher and confessor' Boyd Tonkin, Times

Death Threats

And Other Stories

A new translation of Simenon's gripping novel about lives transformed by deceit and the destructive power of lust. 
 
It was all real: himself, the room, Andrée still lying on the ravaged bed. 
 
For Tony and Andrée, there are no rules when they meet in the blue room at the Hôtel des Voyageurs. Their adulterous affair is intoxicating, passionate - and dangerous. Soon it turns into a nightmare from which there can be no escape. Simenon's stylish and sensual psychological thriller weaves a story of cruelty, reckless lust and relentless guilt. 
 
'A wondrous achievement, brief, inexorable, pared to, and agonisingly close to, the bone, and utterly compelling; in short, a true and luminous work of art.' John Banville 
 
'A double crime, a dark provincial scandal, and a dreadful sort of triumph . . . presented with shattering power' San Francisco Chronicle 
 
'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequaled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian 
 
'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independent

The Blue Room

‘Acute psychological insight and a distinctive, spare, atmospheric style … Simenon ought to be spoken of in the same breath as Camus, Beckett and Kafka’ Independent on Sunday 
 Faced with a house of tight-lipped witnesses to a murder, Simenon's legendary Inspector Maigret must change his methods to uncover the truth 
 
 ‘The family and the house had turned in on themselves, acquiring a hostile face in the process’ 
 
 The once-wealthy Lachaume family closes ranks when one of their own is shot dead, claiming to have heard and seen nothing of the murder. This leaves Maigret – along with a troublesome new magistrate who has waded into the case – to pick his way through their shameful secrets. 
 
 'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century' Guardian 
 ‘Gem-hard soul-probes . . . not just the world's bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend’ Boyd Tonkin, The Times

Maigret and the Reluctant Witnesses

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray 
 
What was it about him that had struck Maigret so forcefully? . . . Little John had cold eyes! . . . Four or five times in his life, he had met people with cold eyes, those eyes that can stare at you without establishing any human contact. 
 
Persuaded to sail to New York by a fearful young law student, Maigret finds himself drawn into the city's underworld, and a wealthy businessman's closely guarded past. 
 
'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian

Maigret in New York

Georges Simenon's chilling portrayal of tragic love, persecution and betrayal. 
 
'One sensed in him neither flesh nor bone, nothing but soft, flaccid matter, so much so that his movements were hard to make out. Very red lips stood out from his orb-like face, as did the thin moustache that he curled with an iron and looked as if it had been drawn on with India ink; on his cheekbones were the symmetrical pink dots of a doll's cheeks.' 
 
People find Mr Hire strange, disconcerting. The tenants he shares his building with try to avoid him. He is a peeping Tom, a visitor of prostitutes, a dealer in unsavoury literature. He is also the prime suspect for a brutal murder that he did not commit. Yet Mr Hire's innocence will not stand in the way of those looking for a scapegoat as tragedy unfolds in this quietly devastating and deeply unnerving novel. 
 
'The romans durs are extraordinary: tough, bleak, offhandedly violent, suffused with guilt and bitterness, redolent of place . . . utterly unsentimental, frightening in the pitilessness of their gaze, yet wonderfully entertaining' John Banville

Mr Hire's Engagement

Hector Loursat, a lawyer in the small town of Moulins, has lived as a drunken recluse since his wife left him eighteen years previously. Unmoored from society and estranged from his daughter, he shuts himself away, numbed by endless bottles of burgundy. But when a dead man is found in his house one night, the resulting police investigation unearths secrets that shake the town - and Loursat's isolation - to the core. No longer able to ignore the world, he emerges to take on the murder case himself and confront the lives of Moulins' by-ways and back streets. 
 
In the progressive break-down of Loursat's self-imposed isolation, Simenon brilliantly depicts the psychology of loneliness and a man's tortured re-engagement with humanity and its darkest acts.

The Strangers in the House

Introducing Inspector Maigret, the literary character behind the major ITV drama starring Rowan Atkinson 
 
The first four titles from the new Penguin Inspector Maigret series: Pietr the Latvian, The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien, The Carter of La Providence and The Grand Banks Cafe. 
 
Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations. 
 
'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray 
 
'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian 
 
'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independent

Inspector Maigret Omnibus 1

Pietr the Latvian, The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien, The Carter of 'La Providence', The Grand Banks Café

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray 
 
The FBI man was convinced, in short, that Maigret was a big shot in his own country but that here, in the United States, he was incapable of figuring out anything . . .well, Maigret happened to believe that men and their passions are the same everywhere. 
 
Maigret is touring the United States to observe American policing methods, when a visit to a coroner's inquest in Arizona draws him into the tragic story of a young woman and five airmen in the desert. 
 
'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian 
 
'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independent

Maigret at the Coroner's

'His artistry is supreme' John Banville 
 
'Once alone in his office, he went over and opened the window as if being in charge of this case made him gasp for a breath of fresh air... It made him feel almost fond of the petty thieves, maniacs, swindlers and offenders of all kinds that he usually had to deal with.' 
 
Maigret has no taste for politics, or politicians, but when he is summoned to a clandestine meeting by a desperate government minister one evening, he finds himself drawn into an unsavoury world of corruption, scandal and cover ups. 
 
'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian 
 
'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independent

Maigret and the Minister

'His artistry is supreme' John Banville 
 
Conflict rather than harmony probably reigned in eight out of ten of the still magnificent houses that surrounded the park. But he had rarely had the opportunity to breath such a strained atmosphere as the one between these walls. Everything seemed fake, grating, starting with the lodge of the concierge-cum-manservant, who was neither a concierge nor a manservant, despite his striped waistcoat, but a former poacher, a murderer turned guard dog. 
 
When a self-made man appeals to Maigret for protection at his lavish home, a years-old grudge from the past resurfaces and the inspector finds himself questioning his own motives. 
 
'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian

Maigret's Failure

'There were some weeks that were painful, nerve-racking. At the office or at home, in the middle of a meal, he would suddenly find his forehead bathed in sweat, a tightness in his chest, and at those times, feeling everyone's eyes on him was unbearable.' 
 
When an unusually inquisitive stranger strikes up conversation with Justin Calmar on the train home from a family holiday, his sun-drenched memories are overshadowed by an event that will change his life forever. As he travels alone through northern Italy and Switzerland, his carefully constructed life as an upright citizen begins to unravel, revealing secret motivations and hidden impulses that threaten to overwhelm him. 
 
Originally published in 1965, shortly after Simenon moved into the spacious new home he had built in Épalinges, Switzerland, this chilling novel is a powerful exploration of the fragility of the human psyche.

The Venice Train

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves 
 
An omnibus edition containing four titles featuring Inspector Maigret: The Saint-Fiacre Affair (where Maigret goes back to the place of his birth), The Misty Harbour (where Maigret is left tied up on a rainy quayside all night), Maigret (where Maigret comes back from retirement) and The Judge's House (where Maigret is exiled to a mussel farming community). 
 
Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels. 
 
'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray 
 
'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian 
 
'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independent

Inspector Maigret Omnibus 2

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray 
 
'He opened the door for her and watched her walk away down the huge corridor, then hesitate at the top of the stairs. Heads turned as she passed. You sensed she came from a different world, the world of the night, and there was something almost indecent about her in the harsh light of a winter's day' 
 
A young cabaret dancer in a black silk dress leads Maigret into a seamy world of nightclubs, drug addiction and exploitation on the streets of Montmartre. 
 
 
This novel has been published in previous translations as Maigret and the Strangled Stripper and Maigret in Montmartre. 
 
'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian 
 
'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independent

Maigret at Picratt's

‘Acute psychological insight and a distinctive, spare, atmospheric style … Simenon ought to be spoken of in the same breath as Camus, Beckett and Kafka’ Independent on Sunday 
 In this classic novel, a dramatic case unfolds while Inspector Maigret is visiting colleagues in America 
 
 ‘The FBI man was convinced, in short, that Maigret was a big shot in his own country but that here, in the United States, he was incapable of figuring out anything’ 
 
 Inspector Maigret is touring the United States to observe American policing methods, when a visit to a troubling coroner’s inquest in Arizona sparks a fascination with the story of a young girl and five airmen in the desert. 
 'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century' Guardian 
 ‘Gem-hard soul-probes . . . not just the world's bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend’ Boyd Tonkin, The Times

Maigret Gets Angry

‘Acute psychological insight and a distinctive, spare, atmospheric style … Simenon ought to be spoken of in the same breath as Camus, Beckett and Kafka’ Independent on Sunday 
 
 In this classic novel, a woman’s fears for her safety lead Inspector Maigret to a Paris suburb where he uncovers appalling family secrets 
 ‘Barely twenty-eight years old. But it would be difficult to look more like an old maid, to move less gracefully…those black dresses…that ridiculous green hat!’ 
 
 For six months the dowdy Cécile has been coming to the police station, desperate to convince them that someone has been breaking into her aunt’s apartment. No one takes her seriously – until Maigret unearths a story of merciless, deep-rooted greed. 
 'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century' Guardian 
 ‘Gem-hard soul-probes . . . not just the world's bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend’ Boyd Tonkin, The Times

Cécile is Dead

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