Michael Kenyon


Michael F. Kenyon was a British author of crime novels. Author of more than 20 humorous mystery novels, he was one of the first in the field of spoof-espionage story telling, but perhaps better known for the Superintendent O'Malley, and latterly Inspector Henry Peckover series of books. Peckover was especially successful, fondly known as "The Bard Of The Yard". He was also a regular contributor to Gourmet Magazine, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.

Biography

Kenyon was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, in 1931. Educated at Quaker's Schools both in Yorkshire and Berkshire. He served his National Service with the Royal Air Force and afterwards read history at Wadham College, Oxford. He also spent a year at Duke University, North Carolina, on a Rotary Fellowship.
On his return to England, and after many unsuccessful applications to the BBC and up to thirty different newspapers, he finally secured a position as a reporter with the Bristol Evening Post, where he also contributed as Gloucestershire cricket correspondent. After three years and a brief stint with the News Chronicle, he joined the Manchester Guardian.
His first novel, May You Die in Ireland, was an immediate success. Initially publishing all his crime novels through The Crime Club, and later through Macmillan Publishers, he soon became an established and accomplished writer.
After becoming a visiting lecturer to the University of Illinois, he returned to England briefly before moving to Southampton, New York where he taught in the English Department of Southampton College. He became a United States citizen in 1997.
Kenyon died in 2005 after suffering a heart attack at home in Southampton village.

Novels