Kyril Bonfiglioli

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Kyril Bonfiglioli (1929-1985) was an art dealer in Oxford, UK, who was for a short time also an editor. He later became a writer. After his divorce he lived in Lancashire, Jersey and Ireland. He died in Jersey in 1985.

He edited Science Fantasy magazine for a period from 1964 to 1966, appointed by David Warburton of Roberts and Vinter Ltd.; and the successor Impulse for its first few issues in 1966 before handing the reins to Harry Harrison.

He wrote several books featuring Charlie Mortdecai, three of those were published in his lifetime, and one posthumously. Charlie Mortdecai is the fictional art dealer anti-hero of the series. His character resembles, among other things, an amoral Bertie Wooster with occasional psychopathic tendencies. His books are still being published and have been translated into several different languages including Spanish, French, Italian, German and Japanese. All his books are highly entertaining, picaresque and politically incorrect.

Bonfiglioli's style and novel structure have often been favorably compared to that of P. G. Wodehouse. Also, Mortdecai and Jock bear a fun-house mirror relation to Wodehouse's Wooster and Jeeves. The author makes a nod to this comparison by having Mortdecai reference Wodehouse in the second novel, After You With The Pistol.

His second wife, Margaret Bonfiglioli has written and compiled an anthology of works and anecdotes, called "The Mortdecai ABC." (ISBN 0-670-91084-8 UK: Penguin / Viking, 2001)

The three original books:

• Don't Point That Thing At Me (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1972)
• Something Nasty In The Woodshed (Macmillan, 1976)
• After You With The Pistol (Secker and Warburg, 1979)

An historical prequel about one of Charlie's Dutch ancestors.

• All the Tea in China (Secker and Warburg, 1978)

The posthumously completed sequel:

• The Great Mortdecai Moustache Mystery completed by Craig Brown (satirist) (Black Spring Press, 1999)

[edit] External link

• Article on Bonfiglioli in The New Yorker