Donald Landels Henderson was born in 1905; he later said, 'I cannot pretend to have enjoyed anything very much about my childhood or adolescence.' Henderson was an actor and combined writing with his acting career. He died at only 44, in 1947, just three years after the publication of Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper.

Martin Edwards is an award-winning crime novelist whose Lake District Mysteries have been optioned by ITV. Elected to the Detection Club in 2008, he became the first Archivist of the Club, and is also Archivist of the Crime Writers' Association. Renowned as the leading expert on the history of Golden Age detective fiction, he won the Crimefest Mastermind Quiz three times, and possesses one of Britain's finest collections of Golden Age novels.