Norman Colin Dexter, but always known as Colin Dexter, was born in 1930 in Stamford where his father ran a small garage and taxi company. Colin gained a scholarship to the local public school where he was to obtain his love of English literature, and in particular poetry. Following his National Service he read Classics at Christ’s College, Cambridge gaining both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in 1953 and 1958 respectively.

Colin never left education for until deafness forced him to retire in 1966, he taught Classics at a variety of secondary schools in the Midlands. This forced a move to Oxford where he took up the position of head of Greek and Latin at the University of Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations, a post he held until his retirement in 1988. It was during his time in Oxford that he wrote his 13 Inspector Morse novels – the first being started during a family holiday in Wales during the rather wet summer of 1972.

Always generous with his time we were most fortunate that Colin was able to feature so prominently in our Inspector Morse’s Oxford DVD, and also to write the introduction for The Murder of Christina Collins, the latter being a real life Victorian crime upon which he was to base his Crime Writer’s Association Gold Dagger winning novel The Wench is Dead.