W. J. Burley

• Born: August 1, 1914
• Birthplace: Falmouth, Cornwall, England
• Died: November 15, 2002
• Place of death: Holywell, Cornwall, England

Types of Plot: Police procedural; cozy

Principal Series: Wycliffe, 1970-2002

Contribution

When W. J. Burley’s Detective Superintendent Wycliffe reflects on how the study of the human species is far more engaging than the study of animals, he speaks for the author as well. Before Burley turned to writing mysteries past the age of fifty, he was a professionally trained zoologist. His novels are studies of human psychology and sociology, particularly of the inhabitants of small towns. Wycliffe is an engaging but not fully developed character who acts as the means through which readers encounters a range of interesting personalities and situations. The strength of the novels is in the local color Burley evokes and in his strong characterizations of the people Wycliffe observes. Though Burley—long a member but not a participant in the Crime Writers’ Association—won no major awards for his writing, he was honored in a more tangible way by having his Wycliffe series dramatized on television. The popular broadcasts (more numerous than his books) not only provided considerable wherewithal to the author but also introduced his work to a large audience.

Biography

William John Burley was born in Falmouth, Cornwall, England, on August 1, 1914, the sixth child and first son in his family. His parents—William John Rule Burley and Annie Curnow Burley—were both natives of the West Country, and Burley’s Cornish roots are at least five generations deep.

Trained as an engineer at Truro Central Technical Schools (1926-1930) and on scholarship at the Institution of Gas Engineers (1931), Burley rose to become manager of various gas undertakings in the southwest of England (including Truro Gas Company, 1938; Okehampton Gas Company, 1940; Crewkerne Gas and Coke Company, 1944; and Camborne Gas Company, 1946). Burley married school secretary Muriel Wolsey in 1938, and the couple produced two sons, Alan John and Nigel Philip. Because Burley was in an occupation judged vital to the United Kingdom during World War II, he was not inducted into the military but instead served as a sergeant in the Home Guard.

Burley in 1946 began attending natural history classes and became fascinated with local insect life. In 1950 he abandoned his career in energy—and lost his pension—to study zoology on a state scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford. After he graduated with an honors degree in zoology in 1953, Burley went into teaching. He was head of the biology department at Richmond and East Sheen Country Grammar School for boys (1953-1955) before he became the head of the biology department and sixth-form tutor at Newquay Grammar School in Cornwall. Burley settled in Newquay with his wife and two children and remained at the school until his formal retirement.

Burley wrote his first novel, A Taste of Power, set in a school and featuring amateur detective Henry Pym, in 1966 and followed it with Three-Toed Pussy (1968), which introduced his best-known character, Superintendent Charles Wycliffe. After one more Pym novel, Death in Willow Pattern (1969), Burley returned to the Wycliffe series with To Kill a Cat (1970) and, except for occasional excursions outside the series, concentrated primarily on Wycliffe for the rest of his career.

Burley retired from teaching in 1974 to devote himself full time to writing. His background in the biological sciences and his interest in organic and social evolution show themselves in his various novels, especially in a nonseries work, The Sixth Day (1978). A science-fiction adventure, The Sixth Day concerns various groups of twentieth century men who are carried into the future by alien life-forms who have colonized the then-desolated Earth and who expose the humans to different life-forms and systems of social integration.

Throughout Burley’s writing career, however, it was the Wycliffe novels that occupied most of the author’s time and captured the bulk of reader attention. Burley’s status was given a tremendous boost in 1993 when a pilot featuring the fictional police officer, “Wycliffe and the Cycle of Death,” with actor Jack Shepherd in the title role, was broadcast in the United Kingdom. The following year, six Wycliffe episodes based on the books were broadcast, and through 1998 more than thirty-five episodes aired, giving Burley—then past his eightieth year—a level of financial comfort that he had not previously enjoyed. Despite his late success, Burley continued to write and produced four additional Wycliffe titles despite failing eyesight. He was working on a twenty-third novel in the series, Wycliffe’s Last Lap, and had a twenty-fourth planned (Wycliffe and the Dream Castle) when he died in November, 2002.

Analysis

W. J. Burley’s mystery novels are rich in setting and character. The Wycliffe series is set in the West Country of Cornwall and Devon, an area Burley knew well and skillfully described. As head of the regional Criminal Investigation Division, Charles Wycliffe roams the area. Some of the murders he solves are close to his home base of Plymouth; others may occur in coastal resorts, on an island, in a hilly tin-mining region, or elsewhere in the Cornish countryside. Burley conveys a sense not only of the area’s natural beauty and the character of its communities but also of the personalities of its people.

Wycliffe, the son of a Herfordshire tenant farmer, started his career in the police force as a beat officer at the age of nineteen. He made a name for himself as a detective in a Midland town and rose to the rank of detective chief superintendent, which he holds when the series begins. He met his wife, Helen, early in his career. The Wycliffes have twin children, and their relationship with them grows, as do their children, in the course of the series. The twins, David and Ruth, complete postgraduate studies and advance to careers of their own. Professional success enables the Wycliffes to buy the Watch House, a seaside home with a garden and a view of the estuary. Wycliffe’s Nonconformist upbringing and socialist views make him a bit uneasy about these outward signs of success, but Helen helps him learn to indulge himself and tries to develop his cultural instincts. Wycliffe, however, finds it hard to change his nature. He remains at heart a moralist who will mortify himself through self-denial when faced with a difficult decision. His socialism occasionally shows in his antipathy to prosperous businessmen.

Wycliffe is attracted to his job because it gives him an opportunity to interact with people. In almost all the novels, Wycliffe compares himself to a scientific observer of animal species.

Some men watched animals, building little hides to spy on badgers, birds or deer, but Wycliffe could not understand them. From a window on to a street, from a seat in a pub or a park, or strolling round a fairground, it was possible to observe a far more varied species, more complex, more intelligent, more perceptive and vastly richer in the pattern of their emotional response.

In many ways, Wycliffe’s task is more difficult than that of an animal expert, for “he worked with human beings, on whom all studies had to be done in the wild.”

Wycliffe gains an understanding of his own identity by seeing in others the same intimate thoughts and desires that he himself harbors. The same drive leads him to read autobiographies and diaries and to immerse himself in all aspects of a victim’s life and surroundings when he is conducting an investigation. Interrogations are handled like conversations as he probes to learn more about the people involved in a case. As he absorbs data from his observations and from the reports of his team, Wycliffe withdraws into himself, becoming taciturn and irritable.

In the course of an investigation, after a seemingly endless series of interrogations, interviews and reports, when his ideas were confused and contradictory, his mind would suddenly clear and the salient facts stand out in sharp relief as though a lens had suddenly brought them into proper focus. At this stage he would not necessarily distinguish any pattern in the facts but he would, from then on, be able to classify and relate them so that a pattern would eventually emerge.

Wycliffe does not conform to the police force’s ideal for conducting an investigation; he does too much of the investigative work himself and spends too little time coordinating tasks and organizing paperwork. Burley does, however, give some insight into the actual procedures of police work that occur around Wycliffe. He also gives the reader a view of the everyday tasks and office politics that consume much of Wycliffe’s time, regardless of whether there is an investigation in progress.

The focus of these novels, however, is not on Wycliffe but on the people involved in a murder—the victims, their families and friends, the suspects, and the criminals. In some of the novels, Wycliffe is a latecomer to the action, the story having been well advanced before the police become involved. Burley delves into violence that erupts from a variety of sources: from the consequences of a smoldering and overprotective love (To Kill a Cat and Death in a Salubrious Place, 1973); from an illegitimate birth long kept secret (Guilt Edged, 1971; Wycliffe and the Beales, 1983; and Wycliffe and the Quiet Virgin, 1986); from greed and business deceit (Wycliffe in Paul’s Court, 1980); from an attempt to prevent the revelation of a long-standing art fraud (Wycliffe and the Winsor Blue, 1987); from drug dealing and blackmail (Death in Stanley Street, 1974); from a desire for revenge for wrongful conviction in a murder case (Wycliffe and the Pea-Green Boat, 1975); from the trauma suffered by a victim and her family in a case of vicious schoolgirl hazing (Wycliffe and the Schoolgirls, 1976); from fear of disinheritance (Wycliffe and the Scapegoat, 1978); from the consequences of an unsolved robbery and murder committed years before (Wycliffe and the Four Jacks); and from the desire of a suicide’s friends to punish the man who had pushed him to despair (Wycliffe’s Wild Goose Chase, 1982). Although the motives are varied, there is one thing these violent acts share: deep roots. Long-hidden secrets become known, long-nursed grievances explode, and long-festering relationships finally produce violence.

Crime involves Wycliffe with all elements of society, from an old Catholic country family to antiquarian book dealers, from a former convict managing a seedy seaside boardinghouse to a member of Parliament, from a leading author of popular yet critically acclaimed books to a widowed lighthouse keeper, and from a terminally ill rock star to the manager of a tourist caravan park. Burley is interested in the entire range of people who inhabit and visit his West Country, and he succeeds in making them come alive. As their lives and dreams are exposed, the reader, like Wycliffe, gains greater insight into the human condition.

Wycliffe and the Tangled Web

Set in a fictionalized version of the tiny Cornish seaside village of Mevagissey, Wycliffe and the Tangled Web (1988) unfolds at a leisurely pace. The story revolves around seventeen-year-old Hilda Clemo, a pretty, bright, if odd, girl whose visit to the local doctor propels the plot into motion. Soon after meeting with her boyfriend, Ralph Martin, Hilda vanishes, and when no trace of her is found for two days, Wycliffe and his team of investigators—Kersey, Scales, Lane, and others—is called in. During their weeklong enquiry, Wycliffe and his minions scour the surrounding area and question a variety of individuals as they methodically draw ever closer to the solution of what happened, when it happened, and who is responsible. They discover suspects in the disappearance—the boyfriend, the smarmy husband of Hilda’s sister, the half-wit son of a relative living nearby—one after another before Hilda’s body shows up in a quarry pond several days after police divers had already searched it. Possible motives for her murder change over time: originally, it was thought that the reason for her death was her pregnancy—Hilda had told several people she was going to have a baby—until an autopsy reveals that she was not pregnant. A connection to a missing, valuable Pissaro painting is revealed, pointing the finger of guilt at several possible candidates, before the real and uncomplicated cause of death comes to light: a simple impulsive reaction to Hilda’s cruelty in telling the hurtful lie about her pregnancy to the wrong person.

Wycliffe and the Tangled Web illuminates the particular strengths of the series: Burley’s ability to capture the atmosphere of small-town Cornwall; his skill in drawing believable, unique characters and the relationships between them; and his keen ear in reproducing dialogue. Mostly, Burley aptly demonstrates that the solutions to crimes in police procedurals lie not in the talents of a single law enforcer—Wycliffe, while efficient at using his resources and effective at orchestrating the investigation, is a plodder rather than someone capable of making brilliant leaps of deduction—but in the cumulative effect of an experienced team working together toward a common goal.

Wycliffe and the Guild of Nine

Burley’s last completed installment in the Wycliffe series, Wycliffe and the Guild of Nine (2000) reintroduces characters from an earlier entry, Wycliffe and the Quiet Virgin. Set ten years later, the book opens with Wycliffe brooding over the fact that his new commanding officer is a woman and contemplating the recent death of Francine, a young woman who figured prominently in Wycliffe and the Quiet Virgin. The murder happens on the moors, where an astrologically influenced man named Archer and his pragmatic wife, Lina, have set up an artist’s colony called the Guild of Nine. Francine, who had intended to invest in the colony, is found dead, asphyxiated because a gas heater has been deliberately sabotaged. Called into the case, Wycliffe discovers that several colonists have secrets that would make them reluctant to have police involvement. Complications arise, suspects multiply, and possibilities abound when two additional murders are perpetrated after Wycliffe’s arrival. Wycliffe and the Guild of Nine, with Burley’s trademark well-rounded characters and evocative setting, is a fitting conclusion to the popular Wycliffe series.

Principal Series Characters:

• Charles Wycliffe is detective chief superintendent in the English West Country. Small of stature and cerebral—he gives the impression of being a monk rather than a police officer—he is interested in human behavior and motivation. His wife, Helen, and their children provide an occasional domestic backdrop that adds some dimension to his character. Wycliffe’s professional colleagues change as they are promoted and transferred during the course of the series.
• Chief Inspector James Gill , tough and cynical, is Wycliffe’s chief aide in the early novels.
• John Scales rises from being the squad’s detective sergeant responsible for photography to being the most imaginative of Wycliffe’s inspectors.
• Sergeant Kersey works well with Wycliffe on a local case and eventually becomes a detective inspector.
• Detective Sergeant Lucy Lane becomes the first female member of the squad in Wycliffe and the Four Jacks (1985).
• Dr. Franks , the pathologist, with his passions for fast cars and young women, is a friend and colleague throughout the series.
• Hugh Bellings , deputy chief constable, is a politically oriented administrator with whom Wycliffe is often at odds.

Bibliography

Berlins, Marcel. The Times, April 18, 1998, p. 3. This discussion about the state of the crime novel notes the trend toward ultrarealism, and the financial success of authors whose works are successfully portrayed on television, including Burley.

Burley, W. J. WJBurley.com: Celebrating a Unique Author. http://wjburley.com. Web site devoted to Burley. Contains a biography, information about his novels, the television series, and how he wrote novels.

Crossley, Jack. “A Policeman’s Unhappy Lot.” The Times, July 30, 1994. Brief profile of Burley looks at his motivation for writing and his love of Cornwall.

Fletcher, Connie. “Mysteries.” Review of Wycliffe and the Pea-Green Boat, by W. J. Burley. Booklist 72, no. 8 (December 15, 1975): 551. This is a favorable review, which cites the skill of the author in using the past to explain present circumstances.

Hanson, Gillian Mary. City and Shore: The Function of Setting in the British Mystery. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2004. Looks at many major British novelists and their works in which setting was important. Sheds light on how Burley’s fellow writers used setting, which was important to Burley.

Hubin, Allen J. “Criminals at Large.” Death in Willow Pattern, by W. J. Burley. The New York Times, April 19, 1970, p. 37. Contains a favorable review in which Burley’s lesser known protagonist Dr. Henry Pym, zoologist and sleuth, is invited to examine a wealthy nobleman’s valuable family library during Christmas holiday and incidentally to investigate charges that the nobleman has been writing a series of poison-pen letters.

Pronzini, Bill, and Marcia Muller, eds. 1001 Midnights: The Aficionado’s Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction. New York: Arbor House, 1986. Contains a brief analysis of Burley’s Wycliffe and the Scapegoat by Pronzini and Newell Dunlap, which—through praising the colorful setting (an ancient All Hallow’s Eve ritual in a small English town that involves a wheel of fire), and the well-drawn characters—pans the author’s lack of flair and the book’s pedestrian solution.

Publishers Weekly. Review of Wycliffe and the Quiet Virgin, by W. J. Burley. 230, no. 14 (October 3, 1986): 98. Contains an unfavorable review. Praises the author’s occasional evocative descriptions of the Cornish country but criticizes the novel’s formulaic plot, somewhat plodding style, and its easily solved puzzle.