Books-Links

Here are a few of the authors (and some of the unforgettable characters and/or series they created) I have enjoyed reading over the past four decades.

Historical

Rafael Sabatini (Scaramouche, Captain Blood, Sea Hawk..filmed well also..some of the best swashbucklers ever done.. the final sword fight in Scaramouche is perhaps one of the longest in films), Jeffery Farnol(Black Bartlemy's Treasure and Martin Conisby's Vengeance), Alexander Dumas (Three Musketeers..one of the Tamil writers I grew up with (Kalki) was perhaps much influenced by Dumas and SirWalter Scott..Kalki's characters Vandhiyath thEvan and Nandhini of "Ponniyin Selvan" remind us of d'Artagnan and Milady), Georgette Heyer (Regency Romances and Mysteries), Baroness Orczy (Scarlet Pimpernel...My very first Light Traffic column has a poetic tribute to this character), C.S.Forester (Hornblower Series..also authored "African Queen" starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn)

Adventure

Leslie Charteris (Saint) , Edwy Searles Brooks( a.k.a Berkeley Gray of the Norman Conquest Series, Victor Gunn of "Ironsides" Cromwell of the Yard, Sexton Blake mysteries..), Peter Cheyney(Lemmy Caution, Slim Callaghan, "Dark"Series) , Maurice Leblanc(Arsene Lupin..I remember devouring English translations in the 50's .Lupin has become popular once again ... thanks to the English cartoon(a France-Canada co-production), Nighthood and the popular Japanese cartoon featuring Lupin III, supposed to be the grand-son of the original Arsene Lupin), Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain(Fantomas, the arch-criminal anti-hero), John Buchan (Richard Hannay of Thirtynine Steps etc.), Ian Fleming(James Bond), Peter O'Donnell (Modesty Blaise), Edgar Wallace (Three Justmen, J.G.Reeder, Sanders, Ringer, Mixer), Alistair MacLean (Guns of Navarone etc.), E. W. Hornung (Raffles), John D. Macdonald (Travis McGee)

Humour

P.G.Wodehouse (Jeeves, Lord Emsworth, Mulliner...One of the Tamil writers I grew up with ("DhEvan") was perhaps a fan of Wodehouse and Edgar Wallace...His "Malhari Rao" character was perhaps inspired by Mulliner. It is also interesting that Leslie Charteris pays a tribute to PGW in a book-dedication)

Science-Fiction

Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan, Carson Napier of Venus, John Carter of Mars)

Westerns

Max Brand , Zane Grey , Louis L'Amour(Sacketts), Clarence E.Mulford(Hopalong Cassidy..played on Film by William Boyd.. Even Louis L'Amour wrote a few Hopalong Cassidy novels after CEM passed away..)

Mystery

Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes... Again my first Light Traffic column has an obvious tribute to Holmes and Watson .. In the early days of Detective stories in Tamil, many writers like AraNi Kuppuswamy Mudhaliyaar and Vaduvoor Dhoraiswamy Iyengar unabashedly borrowed heavily from the "Master "), Erle Stanley Gardner( Perry Mason[ who was perhaps the inspiration behind "Justice Jagannaathan" of the Tamil writer, "DhEvan"], Cool and Lam Series, Doug Selby etc.), John Creasey (The Toff, Gideon)
Donald E. Westlake (Dortmunder, Parker), Gregory Mcdonald (Fletch, Flynn), Robert B.Parker (Spenser), Dick Francis (Sid Halley), Robert Crais (Elvis Cole)

Early Tamil Detective Writers

The early writers were Arani Kuppuswamy Mudaliar ( 1867-1925), Vaduvoor Duraiswamy Iyengar (1880-1940) and J.R.Rangaraju (1875-1956). Arani created the detective Ananda Singh, basically ripped off from Sherlock Holmes.His Tamil translations of the English names were hilarious; Arasur Lakshmanan for Arsene Lupin , Dr.Viswanathan for Dr.Watson, Maarappan for Moriarty etc. Vaduvur created the detective Digambara Saamiyaar , perhaps inspired by Father Brown and his books were more Indianised than Arani's 'translations'. D.Saamiyaar was also filmed later with Nambiar acting as the Detective. Rangaraju created Thuppariyum Govindhan. Among the later writers the most successful writer was 'Devan' (Mahadevan) who created Thuppariyum Sambu . My tribute to Sambu (with Sambu's 'picture' ) in the form of a Tamil poem can be seen at : ThuppaRiyum sAmbu . Devan also created another famous detective, C.I.D. Chandru. Another Tamil writer, Tamilvanan introduced ShankarLal , popular among youth. A recent satirical 'detective' novel by Jeyamohan 4th Murder gathered all these famous Tamil detectives + Sherlock Holmes+ James Bond ..et al under one roof, so to speak, trying to solve a murder mystery!

Pas S. Pasupathy