About the Author

Martin Fido was Andrew Bradley Junior Research Fellow in English Literature at Balliol College, Oxford in the 1960s, and thereafter taught English at the Universities of Leeds and the West Indies. He was also a visiting professor at Michigan State University. He now lives in Massachusetts and teaches at Boston University. His Short Illustrated Life of Dickens was hailed by The Dickensian as one of the two best books marking the centenary of Dickens' death. Besides his books on literature, he has published many articles dealing with nineteenth century novelists such as Dickens, Thackeray, Disraeli and Jane Austen, but is probably best known for his work on Jack the Ripper and his LBC Radio series Murder After Midnight which ran from 1987 to 2001.