Les Origines du Roman Policier A wartime wireless talk to the French by Dorothy L Sayers The original French text with an English translation, introduction and notes by Suzanne Bray. Published by the Dorothy L Sayers Society. ISBN 0954563603, 29pp Date of publication: 8th November 2003

Les Origines Du Roman Policier is the title of a broadcast talk which Dorothy L Sayers was planning to give to the French in 1940 as part of a series of programmes designed to strengthen Franco-British cultural relations. The invasion of France prevented this from taking place. The text of her talk has been translated into English by Suzanne Bray and is now published for the first time with an Introduction and notes. Already acknowledged as one of the most influential writers on the development of Detective Fiction, Sayers focuses on Poe, Wilkie Collins, Conan Doyle and particularly on the French writer Emile Gaboriau in this short work.

Suzanne Bray is English and married to a Yorkshireman, but she lives in the north of France where she lectures in British civilisation at Lille Catholic University. She obtained her PhD from the Lille III University with a doctoral thesis on literary lay apologists in Great Britain from 1900 to 1963. This thesis concentrated particularly on the works of CS Lewis, Dorothy L Sayers, GK Chesterton and TS Eliot. Suzanne has also published several critical articles on these authors and about Charles Williams. She also translates and interprets, reads detective fiction and theology, and tries to convince the local population that English women can cook.

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Les Origines is now out of print, although you may be able to find copies on the second hand market.