Kyril Bonfiglioli - 'Charlie Mortdecai' Series

'Charlie Mortdecai' Series

He wrote nearly four books featuring Charlie Mortdecai, three of which were published in his lifetime, and one posthumously as completed by the satirist Craig Brown. Charlie Mortdecai is the fictional art dealer anti-hero of the series. His character resembles, among other things, an amoral Bertie Wooster with occasional psychopathic tendencies. His books are still in print and have been translated into several different languages including Spanish, French, Italian, German and Japanese.

Bonfiglioli's style and novel structure have often been favourably compared to that of P. G. Wodehouse. Mortdecai and his manservant Jock Strapp bear a fun-house mirror relation to Wodehouse's Wooster and Jeeves. The author makes a nod to this comparison by having Mortdecai reference Wodehouse in the novels.

His second wife, Margaret Bonfiglioli wrote and compiled a posthumous anthology of works and anecdotes, called "The Mortdecai ABC." (ISBN 0-670-91084-8 UK: Penguin / Viking, 2001)

The three original books:

• Don't Point That Thing At Me (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1972)
• Something Nasty In The Woodshed (Macmillan, 1976)
• After You With The Pistol (Secker and Warburg, 1979)

Anthologised in:

• The Mortdecai Trilogy (Black Spring Press, 1991)

An historical prequel about one of Charlie's Dutch ancestors.

• All the Tea in China (Secker and Warburg, 1978)

The posthumously completed sequel:

• The Great Mortdecai Moustache Mystery completed by Craig Brown (satirist) (Black Spring Press, 1999)