Simon Brett to speak at Kennaway House this week.

The distinguished crime writer Simon Brett will launch this year’s Meet the Author season at Kennaway House ON Wednesday (March 16).

Simon read History and english at Wadham College, Oxford, but spent much of his time there acting with contemporaries such as Nigel Rees and John Sergeant.

After performing on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe he was offered his first job as a trainee BBC producer.

Dr Michael James, President of Kennaway House and an old friend of Simon’s, said: “He moved from there to London Weekend Television, where he produced the pilot episode of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

“But he’s been a full-time writer since 1979 - maybe particularly well-known for his series After Henry, starring Prunella Scales, which was a great success on Radio 4 and then on television.”

Simon’s is also the author of three popular series of detective novels featuring the actor Charles Paris, Mrs Pargeter and the fictional village of Fethering on the Sussex coast.

Michael added “Simon will be talking about his writing, then performing his spoof one-man detective drama Lines of Inquiry, in which he plays all the parts with different voices – it’s one of the funniest things I have ever seen.”

Simon, now 70, has just retired as President of the Detection Club, a dining club of distinguished crime and thriller writers founded by Agatha Christie (who also served as President), GK Chesterton, Baroness Orczy (creator of the Scarlet Pimpernel) and others in 1932. He was awarded the OBE in the new year.

Tickets (£12 to include the usual glass of wine) available from Kennaway House office or call 01395 515551. Doors open at 7pm for 7.30pm. The full 2016 programme will be available and forward bookings can be made.