The Saint's Blog devoted to news and rumors about The Saint and Leslie Charteris. Simon Templar, alias The Saint, was played by Roger Moore in the 1960's TV show featuring the Volvo 1800.
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The Best of The Saint by Leslie Charteris is now available for order from Amazon! This two-volume tome will be released on December 11, 2008.
It's been 80 years since the adventures of Simon Templar first debuted in print and Hodder & Stoughton are celebrating this anniversary by publishing two anthologies of the best of the Saint's adventures.
Volume 1 is introduced by Ken Follett; this sparkling collection of the very best of the earlier stories:
The Man Who Was Clever
The Policeman with Wings
The Lawless Lady
The Inland Revenue
The Charitable Countess
The Star Producers
The Art of Alibi
The Simon Templar Foundation
The High Fence
The Ellusive Ellshaw
The Miracle Tea Party
The Affair of Hogsbotham
Sir Roger Moore, star of the Sixties TV series, introduces Volume 2 -- a collection of post-war stories of the following Saint adventures:
Today, May 12th, would have been Leslie Charteris' 101st birthday. Charteris was born in Singapore on May 12, 1907 as Leslie Charles Bowyer Yin.
Charteris was born to a Chinese father and an English mother. His father was a physician who claimed to be able to trace his lineage back to the emperors of the Shang Dynasty. Charteris became interested in writing at an early age, at one point creating his own magazine with articles, short stories, poetry, editorials, serials, and even a comic strip.
2008 is shaping up to be a great year for Leslie Charteris. Eighty years ago Charteris wrote and published the first of many stories about Simon Templar, alias The Saint. The Saint has appeared in various media, and it seems that this 80th anniversary of his creation is the one that people are latching on to -- rather than last year's centenary of the author, which pretty much everyone missed anyway.
The 80th anniversay plans include a new 2-hour TV pilot starring James Purefoy, re-releases of Charteris' books, some new audio CDs, and additional DVD releases around the world.
Watch this space. As things are confirmed, you'll learn more about them by checking the news blog on www.saint.org and www.lesliecharteris.com!
The Saint’s Second Front is the name of a lost, unpublished short story that Leslie Charteris wrote in the summer of 1941. While the title for this story is unconfirmed, a novella called The Saint’s Second Front is referred to in some correspondence between Leslie Charteris and his agents Willis Wing and Virginia Russell around this time. Since The Saint’s Second Front is otherwise unknown, and it makes sense from a plot perspective, this name is probably correct.
This lost story is often referred to as The Saint at Pearl Harbor, but that is not an accurate title. Other suggestions have been The Saint and The Surprise Attack, Surprise The Saint, or even just Surprise Attack!
Many of the Saint stories written by Leslie Charteris have been proven to be quite prophetic of things to come. None as much so as one particular story that was never published at all.
It is fairly certain that it was Cosmopolitan who turned this story down for reasons of, "we do not think this is the time to publish anything which might aggravate the tensions with our Japanese friends.”
In the introduction of the May 1957 issue of The Saint Detective Magazine, Charteris wrote:
A while after that I tried to get ahead of the game by writing Prelude For War when Hitler was still only a rather funny little man making raucous noises that scared relatively few people. Being obviously incurable, after that war was solidly started, I wrote a book in which the Saint averted a fair facsimile of Pearl Harbor, except that the attack was to be on California instead of Oahu. That is the only story I have written since becoming a professional which never got published: nobody would touch it, because it was too preposterous, and might even offend our good friends, the Japs. This was in the summer of ‘41. But perhaps I was lucky that time, after all. As a period piece, today, it might have seemed a bit silly.
Eight years later in Instead of The Saint—IV, published in the January 1965 issue of The Saint Mystery Magazine, Charteris again mentioned his great unpublished story of 1941:
The only story I have failed to sell since I became what is called “established” dealt elaborately and ingeniously with a Japanese plot for a sneak attack on the United States; it was completed in the summer of 1941, and the only error in my crystal ball was that the attack was organized for the coast of Southern California instead of Pearl Harbor, and was planned as part of an immediate invasion, in which I was smarter than the Japanese High Command. It was killed by the national magazine I wrote it for because “we do not think this is the time to publish anything which might aggravate the tensions with our Japanese friends”. And now, of course, unlike other prophetic stories which I first brought out when they were prophetic, there would be no point in publishing it.
Unfortunately it looks like the story has been lost forever as Paul M. James writes in a letter to Dan Bodenheimer, December 21, 1990:
That “Pearl Harbor” Saint story is a sad one (especially for me). Some years ago, L.C. [Leslie Charteris] told me he did not keep a copy after it was turned down. Then, just recently, Ellen Nehr (who is writing that Crime Club book [History of the Crime Club]) wrote me that all Doubleday records prior to the early 1950s were trashed by some idiots when Doubleday sent its old (before early 1954) records to a warehouse. What a catastrophe! I recently wrote L.C. that I had always hoped to find that Saint “Pearl Harbor” manuscript. But it now looks like it is gone for good.
And more than 50 years later, this story is still missing. It is one of the Saint's own enduring mysteries. If anyone knows of a way to track this story down, I'm sure all the Saint fans would be very interested in reading this long-lost and prophetic story about The Saint.
In what appears to be a bazaar copyright and/or trademark infringement, it's been noted that there is an electronic cigarette on the market which features the Saint logo.
You can visit the SuperSmoker website for time being, that is until the lawyers show up. This is not in anyway an endorsement of this product. It is a surprised, "hey check this weird thing out while you can" notice.
Leslie Charteris, the author of The Saint stories, smoked up until the 1950s when he quit completely and even had Simon Templar quit as well! He was quite adamant about not having smoking around him, and would not be happy about this use of his worldwide trademarked Saint Stickman Logo.
Death Sentence is a 2007 film loosely based on the 1975 novel by Brian Garfield. The film is directed by James Wan, and stars Kevin Bacon as Nick Hume, a man who becomes a vengeful vigilante killer after his son is murdered by a gang as an initiation ritual. The Brian Garfield novel is part of his Death Wish series, made famous by the films with Charles Bronson.
Death Wish IV is one of two blatant knock-offs of Leslie Charteris' The Saint in New York. The other is The Angel, from Timely comics -- according to Maurice Horn in World Encyclopedia of Comics, an early story of this character copied the plot of The Saint in New York and was on whole a homage to Charteris.
John McDonagh wrote to Brian Garfield (author of Death Wish) about the Charteris-Death Wish connection.
From: John McDonagh To: Brian Garfield Sent: Fri, 13 Jul 2007 11:26 pm Subject: Bronson's Loose, I enjoyed the book, part IV and Saint in New York
By the way, on Death Wish IV, I actually had the pleasure of meeting with Irwin Keyes, who played a chauffeur to Frank Boggs (the hitman that Kersey defenestrates) in that film. He (Keyes) mentioned that he was almost hit by a dummy when they filmed Boggs' death scene. I told him "trademark Golan and Globus cutting corners".
I also informed Keyes that the plot of part IV actually had two major precursors. I can only imagine what the estate of Dashiell Hammett thought and what Leslie Charteris said (who was still alive when part IV came out in 1987; he died in 1993), since it took from Red Harvest by the former (as did Yojimbo and A Fistful of Dollars as Hickman notes) and The Saint in New York from the latter (protagonist brought in to wipe out gangs only to find out he has been working for a mobster out to eliminate his rivals). Red Harvest has been copied quite a few times, but the Saint in New York has been adapted far fewer times (there was a movie version and the Timely Comics character The Angel, already derivative of the Saint, did an ex officio adaptation of The Saint in New York) so it was interesting to see the homage to it in Death Wish IV.
To which Brian Garfield replied that didn't remember much of anything about the plot of Death Wish IV since he didn't write it and wasn't even sure he had ever watched the entire movie. He went on to say that Hammett or Charteris need not worry, that since there are a limited number of plot lines, all writers crib from one another, sometimes inadvertently, and that such duplications have little or no effect on the quality or effect of the work. It's the characters and their relationships that are what separates the great stories from the more mundane, and fortunately so, otherwise King Lear would have long ago been buried under a large pile of imitations.
Fiona Glenanne is a fictional character (portrayed by Gabrielle Anwar) in the television series Burn Notice. She was affiliated with the IRA for 14 years, but ran afoul of her old organization because she didn't like being told what to do. She has since gone out on her own, picking up odd jobs and using her skills in explosives, lock picking, tracking, weapons, and hand-to-hand combat to make a living. Fiona picked up Michael Westen in Miami, and has since helped him numerous times in his various jobs. Fiona and Michael had a past relationship, which Michael ended, apparently due to a fear of commitment. Since she has met up with Michael again, Fiona has continued to pressure Michael into a relationship.
While The Saint's girlfriend, Patricia Holm has a very different background, there is something about the interaction between Fiona Glenanne and Michael Westen that is reminiscent of The Saint's relationship with Pat. It has been written that Leslie Charteris wrote Patricia to portray his ideal of the perfect male/female relationship, and while that aspect isn't quite as apparent, there are similarities:
Both Pat and Fiona are strong women who are equal to the tasks that face their male counterparts.
Simon Templar and Michael Westen avoid commitment due to job dangers.
The dialog between the two has affection, humor, and intelligence.
Both Simon and Michael trust their girlfriends to do even the most dangerous jobs without hesitation.
Watch the interaction between the two on Burn Notice; it compares favorably to how Simon Templar and Patricia Holm might act together in this current day and age.
All in all, if there is to be a Patricia Holm in the forthcoming TV series of The Saint, it would be great if the dialog was as sharp as the writing on Burn Notice!
Roger Moore was highlighted in the main feature area of the UK version of the BBC's home page today. This prime spotlight was in connection with the BBC Radio 4 show that Roger narrates, and is well worth the listen!
Leslie Charteris -- A Saintly Centennial Listen Online
Roger Moore celebrates the life of Leslie Charteris, the creator of The Saint, one of the longest-running characters in detective fiction.
BBC Radio 4 has posted a RealAudio stream of Leslie Charteris: A Saintly Centennial. The link will only be available for seven days: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/ram/tue1130.ram
You will need to download the latest RealPlayer from Real.com in order to listen to Barbra Paskin's radio tribute to Leslie Charteris as narrated by Roger Moore.
Don't forget to tune in tomorrow for Barbra Paskin's tribute to 100 years of Leslie Charteris with Roger Moore narrating. The live show is at 11:30am tomorrow, London time, with on-demand replays available for seven days after the initial broadcast.
Roger Moore, who starred as Simon Templar in the original TV series, celebrates the centenary of the birth of popular fiction writer Leslie Charteris, famous for his adventures featuring the character better known as The Saint. The programme includes rare interview footage of Charteris along with contributions from his family, actor Ian Ogilvy and Charteris biographer Ian Dickerson.
There has been some recent issues with BBC Radio 4's RealAudio play back, and during testing today, this is the message that was being displayed:
We are experiencing severe technical problems, and regret that many programmes are unavailable. We are working to restore normal service. See station websites for alternative links.
We'll keep you posted as to the lastest links and news about this great show.
I wasn’t planning to do it quite this soon but since the radio documentary’s now been scheduled I thought I’d better do something.
Yup, www.lesliecharteris.com is back online. New host—apparently spam protected (but that’s not an invitation!)—and new look. Some new content…I’m sure you’ll all be whizzing over to have a look at the short interview with Jorge Zamacona, the writer of the new Saint pilot.
I still have some work to do—I’ve temporarily killed work on the merchandise page to get the web site back up, and a couple of strange html-like boxes have appeared at the bottom of every page—but I’ll get that sorted in due course.
Burl Barer reports a few more details about the upcoming BBC Radio 4 special by Barbra Paskin on the author of The Saint, Leslie Charteris.
Leslie Charteris – A Saintly Centennial Tuesday, July 31, 2007 11:30am - 12:00noon BBC Radio 4
This year marks the centenary of the birth of popular fiction writer Leslie Charteris, best known for his many books chronicling the adventures of Simon Templar, alias The Saint. In this special programme, actor and Saint portrayer Roger Moore explores the life and legacy of Charteris and reveals a world of adventure, torment, insecurity, failed marriages and enormous success as a thriller writer.
The adventures of The Saint have appeared continuously since 1928, making Simon Templar the longest-running character in contemporary detective fiction. But there was more to Charteris's literary acuity than The Saint alone. He was fluent in several languages; he had a monthly column in the epicurial delight, Gourmet magazine; and he devised a pictorial sign language which he called "Paleneo" and wrote a book about it. He was also one of the earliest members of Mensa.
Despite his film-star looks, with a hint of exoticism, Charteris suffered from a long-standing insecurity about his appearance, arising from his mixed racial origin. In later years he dated some of Hollywood's most beautiful women, among them Marlene Dietrich and Jean Harlow.
It wasn't until 1963, when Lou Grade cast Roger Moore and filmed the first television series of The Saint, that Charteris at last felt he'd received the final seal of approbation that had eluded him for 30 years.
Among those exploring the world and psyche of Charteris are Dan Bodenheimer, who runs the official Saint website; Burl Barer, author of The History Of The Saint; and Charteris's biographer Ian Dickerson.
Saint Enterprises 314 N Robertson Blvd West Hollywood, CA 90048-2414
A greatly detailed description of his vast enterprise was written by Leslie Charteris and sent out to a large number of subscribers to his weekly newsletter.
If someone could comment below and tell us all what is there now, that would be wonderful.
From 'A Letter From The Saint', May 16, 1946:
This, then, involved an Office; because as everyone knows no business executive can execute properly without an Office. Wherefore we made ourselves heirs to a heavily mortgaged piece of real estate of sufficiently white elephant proportions to carry the gaudy howdah which we felt our new role in life demanded of us. It has been suggested to us that you might be interested in knowing what this environment is really like.
This exotic mausoleum occupies most of a short block on a Hollywood boulevard otherwise distinguished by hand laundries and hamburger stands. It is a one story building, partly because we are selling most of our spare stories, and partly because we cannot afford insurance for all the visitors who might otherwise fall or be helped down the stairs.
At one end of this building is a large barn known as the Shipping Room, which for some unaccountable reason is usually stacked to the ceiling with large quantities of Saint books which we are still waiting for various characters to buy.
Northwards of this is the main entrance, fronted by a spacious and studiously uncomfortable reception room, where writers, entrepreneurs, and general creditors endeavor to struggle past a receptionist whom we have thoughtfully protected with a sheet of bullet-proof glass. Those who are lucky or persistent enough to gain entrance to the interior, would find on their right the studio of Milt Neil, the artist already referred to, who with the help of three or four assistants turns out our book jackets and other illustrations, as well as plenty of other work of his own. This is a very convenient arrangement for us, but results in a considerable loss of man-hours when he is working on pin-up calendars with live models.
Turning your back on this temptation, you might progress to an open section known as the Slave Market, where the most beautiful girls in the world pound typewriters to perpetuate incomparable manuscripts, or adding machines to keep abreast of our incoming debts.
Opening off this Elysian backwater are a number of black doors with enormous brass handles, resembling bank vaults in every respect except the amount of money cached behind them. These portals admit to various offices occupied by the male bees, or drones, in this hive, or dive.
These are mainly paneled in redwood, fluorescently lighted, healthily ventilated, equipped with bookshelves and restful couches, and swept out once a week. In subsequent letters we may tell you more about their occupants. On this first cursory once-over, you may be informed that one of them contains two gentlemen named Cleve Cartmill and Roby Wentz, who are the mainstays of our Editorial Department, while another harbors our office manager and general panjandrum, Mr. Robert Black, whose perpetually worried expression is probably due to a congenital inability to get used to coping with visiting sheriffs.
A third vault is actually the sanctum sanctorum, or Saint's Den. This over-sized chamber, as befits the hideout of the master mind, contains more bookshelves and more books (mostly by Charteris) than any of the others. It also has a victrola equipped to play radio transcriptions, a radio with short-wave facilities to give adequate warning of police raids, and a piano which has probably been played worse than any similar instrument in the country. Through this Grand Central station passes more busy traffic than any other section of the building, except one.
This section is fortunately next door to my office and is strictly a structural liability. But it always did seem to me that if anyone has to work for a living he might as well have some simple comforts with it.
This other room therefore is a bar. Not one of those converted closets, but a nice big room decorated for mental relief in South Sea island style, with straw matting on the floor, woven bamboo on the walls, and tarred fishnet draped across the ceiling, in which several petrified starfish seem to have become inextricably entangled.
In this sanctuary our braintrust and preferred visitors congregate, first thing in the morning for coffee, at noon for the first cocktails justified by the elevation of the sun across our drooping yardarms, at the end of the day for post mortems, relaxation, and more plans to be disappointed in tomorrow... and since you have let me talk myself into it, that is where I am going now, since this letter is already long enough and I have to save a few items for next week.
I have recently found a number of new Leslie Charteris foreign language editions of The Saint, and have therefore expanded that area of this site quite substantially. Look for the new Finnish, Hungarian, Norwegian, and Portuguese editions on the main foreign language page!
Then look at the growing collection of artwork for the following languages:
Barbra Paskin, a British yet Hollywood-based, journalist has been commissioned by BBC Radio 4 to create a radio show celebrating the 100th year of Leslie Charteris. Barbra, who is most recently noted for her fine biography of Dudley Moore, is an excited Saint fan who has been looking forward to making a show like this for many years. As noted on LeslieCharteris.com, she's a life-long Charteris fan who grew up enraptured with Simon Templar. Her brother Simon (not actually named after Simon Templar), from earliest memory, has always called himself 'ST' and signs all his personal letters with a stick symbol and a halo.
The 30-minute show is in production at the moment and will feature contributions from such notables as Roger Moore, Ian Ogilvy, Patricia Charteris, Dan Bodenheimer, Ian Dickerson, and Burl Barer. More details, including a broadcast date and time, will be posted here as and when we know them.
Book and Magazine Collector's June 2007 issue features, "Leslie Charteris: 100 Years of The Creator of The Saint."
The long 13-page article was written by Norman Wright, begins on page 36 of the issue. The article discusses Charteris' creation of the Saint and is printed in full color with some marvelous illustrations of Roger Moore, George Sanders, Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, Louis Hayward, magazine appearances, various dustjackets, and paperback editions.
A three-page annotated bibliography of the British editions is included, along with some current pricing guidelines within the UK; the highest price is, of course, for a British first Ward Lock edition of Meet The Tiger with dustjacket, at over £3000+ ($6000+)!
The issue went on sale May 10, 2007.
While thanking Book and Magazine Collector for doing a piece on The Saint and Leslie Charteris, Ian Dickerson has also posted a number of factual content errors to the news page of LeslieCharteris.com for you to enjoy -- see how many of them you found yourself!
12th May 2007 marks the 100th anniversay of the birth of Leslie Charteris, one of our famous former pupils.
Leslie Charters was a hugely successful and popular writer from the 1930s almost to the end of the twentieth century. He is often credited with inspiring Ian Fleming in the creation of James Bond.
Born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin to a Chinese father and an English mother. His father was a physician who claimed to be able to trace his lineage back to the emperors of the Shang Dynasty. Hebecame interested in writing at an early age, at one point creating his own magazine with articles, short stories, poetry, editorials, serials, and even a comic strip.
Of course, he is best known for his creation of Simon Templar, "The Saint" who appeared in almost one hundred novels and the well-know TV series of the 1960s, and 70s. Played most famously by Roger Moore, Simon Templar is known as the Saint because of his initials (ST), and also because of his heroic adventures that fly in the face of an otherwise dubious reputation, giving him the reputation of a type of "Robin Hood" who uses questionable methods to "right wrongs".
Templar uses a number of aliases, often using the initials S.T. and often leaves a card behind showing a stick-man drawing of a man with a halo, which is the logo of both the books and TV series.
In order for me to give you an line-by-line translation, I'd have to download the clip again, and I don't have time to do that right now.
In general, the interview was pretty typical and covered pretty familiar ground. The interviewer wanted to know how Leslie came up with Simon's name (he tried some options and picked the best one), what his writing method was (insert paper into the typewriter and start with the first line), was he happy with the Hollywood movies (no, but there were French ones being considered) and a few other related topics. Of course there was the obligatory "I'm sorry, but my French isn't very good," line from Leslie which the interviewer quickly discounted.
I'm sure people who are more fluent or who watch with purpose of translating the clip will be along shortly to do a much better job of providing you with a better, fuller and more complete translation, but I hope that gives you a sense of the interview.
Perhaps someone can comment below with a better translation?
Happy 100th Birthday to Leslie Charters: the creator of Simon Templar, alias The Saint!
Leslie Charteris was born in Singapore 100 years ago today on May 12, 1907 as Leslie Charles Bowyer Yin. Leslie legally changed his name by deed-poll to Leslie Charteris in 1926. He died in Windsor, England on April 15, 1993 at age 85.
Mai-Kai, The Polynesian restaurant was opened on December 28, 1957 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and is grandly celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Leslie Charteris was a regular to the restaurant when he lived in Florida in the 1960s, and even wrote a slightly infrequent column from 1965 to 1967 called Pehea Ka Piko for the in-house magazine, Happy Talk, in return for many delicious drinks and meals "on the house" at Mai-Kai, as Charteris remarked, "which is only the best of the luau and rum-drink emporia on this coast." Charteris went on to note that, "It is a wonderful commentary on today’s economics that this kind of barter deal gives me much more satisfaction than a monetary contract which might be worth many times as much."
There is a Great forum with a large number of pictures and memories from the 50 years of Mai-Kai Happy Talk Tiki Tiki!
The Mai-Kai Restaurant, The Polynesian Restaurant 3599 N Federal Hwy Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308 (954) 563-3272
One of the French Saint films, Le Saint Mène la Danse, from 1960 has been re-released by Turner Classic Movies on DVD and VHS under the title, The Dance of Death. Leslie Charteris did not think very highly of the film, and forbid it from all English-speaking countries. The producers were able to get around this restriction by changing the title and not mentioning The Saint at all when promoted the film -- it's just a strange coincidence that one of the character's has the name Simon Templar.
Description: After he's threatened by unknown killers, a playboy millionaire enlists the help of detective Simon Templar. Things soon get even creepier when prowlers are spotted on the grounds of the playboy's mansion, a guard dog is poisoned and the chauffeur is found brutally murdered. Felix Marten and Francoise Brion star in this French entry in "The Saint" series.
Cast: Felix Marten, Francoise Brion, Jean Desailly, Clement Harari, Michele Mercier, Henri Nassiet
Google Maps has just released a My Maps feature that will allow anyone to create a custom map and publish it for the World to share. So, here's the project for someone out there: create a custom map of one of the following:
All the locations that the Saint has visited in the Saint books by Leslie Charteris.
All the locations used in filming any of the TV shows, along with screenshots of that location from the episode.
All the locations used in any of the Saint movies, again with screenshots of the scene involved.
Author Burl Barer has just posted some interesting notes on his novel, Capture The Saint, on his web blog:
My original Saint novel, CAPTURE THE SAINT,is the only Saint novel in which the copyright rests with someone other than Leslie Charteris. That honor belongs to me. For that reason, television and movie producers often contact me about acquiring the rights to this singular adventure -- and then send a contract proposal that, in the fine print, give them all sorts of rights to which they are not entitled. This has happened more than three times in the past four years. The TV rights to the Saint character are currently in the hands of my buddy Bill Macdonald; Robert Evans has sequel rights to his Val Kilmer film, and RKO has remake rights to their old films. Capture the Saint, of course, is a wonderful book, written by a true genius and approved by the Estate of Leslie Charteris. The literary concept and execution of the novel (although the execution was not fatal) is that it replicates, chapter by chapter, the progression of styles used by Charteris between the 1930's and the 1950's. Actually, it begins in the style of the 1950's, then works backwards to the 30's and forward again --not in time, but in writing style. Of course, it's not a copy of Charteris' style exactly, but rather a combination of affectionate homage and occasional outright satire of Charteris' intentionally overwritten prose. He once said that this is what his readers paid for, much as Cadillac owners pay for the big fins and all that chrome. Striped of his verbosity and prolixity, he said, he was left with his skinny "fundaments" exposed. Before I wrote THE SAINT: A NOVEL (the movie tie-in) the publisher read CAPTURE THE SAINT, and said "today's readers are not sophisticated enough to get the humor. In the new novel for us, can you be less literary?" I replied, "You mean, dumb it down?" "Yeah, that's what we mean." Well, I don't think today's readers are dumb or not sophisticated enough to get my humor. However, I did alter the writing style for the novelization - more streamlined, etc. I wanted to keep Charteris' in-joke approach, but I needed a different way of pulling it off. Hence, I crammed the book with all manner of references to old Saint stories, characters, actors, titles, and even worked in the Bishop and the Actress in the first chapter.
If you want a copy of CAPTURE THE SAINT, be prepared to pay well over $100.00. They are collectors items as the first edition was limited to 600 signed and numbered copies, and the second edition (from Volvo) was only 200 copies distributed at the international test drive of their new vehicles in, I believe, 1998 or 1999. [Search ABE Books]
CAPTURE THE SAINT will be reprinted soon via The Authors Guild "Back in Print" program. And yes, movie and TV producers still call me about the rights. As Mr. Macdonald has the TV rights to the Saint character, it only makes sense to allow his company the opportunity to make a television adaptation. We will discuss this further in the near future...stay tuned and watch for the sign of the Saint...he will be back!
The Saint by Leslie Charteris was first written in English and published in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada for all those English-speaking readers around the world. Due to The Saint's popularity, most of The Saint stories were translated into a number of languages, including: French, Hebrew, Spanish, German, Dutch, Japanese, Greek, Portuguese, Polish, Chinese, Italian, Afrikaans, Czech, Swedish, Turkish, Danish, Hungarian, Serbo-Kroat, Arabic, Norwegian, Finnish, Braille, and perhaps even others!
The success of the Roger Moore series led to a number of TV-tie-in editions in Spanish, Polish, English, and Hebrew, to name a few. When the Val Kilmer Saint movie came out, the Burl Barer novelization of the film was translated into quite a number of languages and might possibly be the most-translated title of all The Saint stories, next to The Saint in New York.
Another interesting fact is that some of the "translations" were never published in English at all. The French translator wrote many stores from radio scripts and comic strips, and while some of these novels were translated into Dutch, and perhaps other languages, they have never been translated back to English.
More details and cover scans are available at The Saint Around The World page of this website (www.saint.org), and your help is greatly appreciated in finding additional languages and book cover artwork.
Dick Bruna is one of the few living Dutch artists to have achieved worldwide fame among young and old. He started drawing in 1940 and among the books he illustrated was the series entitled Zwarte Beertjes (Little Black Bears), which published a very large number of The Saint books by Leslie Charteris in Dutch.
Bruna has spent his later career developing his skills within the picture book genre, creating characters such as miffy. The work of Dick Bruna is distinguished by its simple and direct draughtsmanship. Not only has Bruna made more than a hundred picture books, he has also designed more than two thousand book covers, over one hundred posters, postcards and prints. Aged 78, he still works every day in his studio in Utrecht - this year he published his 114th title. The Dick Bruna collection of the Centraal Museum comprises more than 1,200 works. The Centraal Museum holds the collection on long-term loan.
Ian Dickerson of the Saint Club has posted an English pound note (remember them?) signed by the author (and creator of The Saint) Leslie Charteris to an auction on eBay.
This unique one pound note signed by Charteris is being sold by The Saint Club on behalf of Compass Counselling, a New Forest based charity that provides counselling services. Assuming it hits the reserve figure, all the money from this sale is going straight to charity!
With the upcoming TNT series of The Saint currently in pre-production, I suddenly have a deadline to finish the print version of The Saintly Bible -- The Exhaustive Bibliography of the Immortal Works of Leslie Charteris and his Saint Books.
To that end, I need to quickly get copies of a number of the French Saint Detective Magazines that I am missing from my collection. Please view the last section at the very end of my want list, and let me know if you can offer any assistance. I'm not reposting all the numbers here, as then I'd have to maintain my want list in two places.
Jean-Marc Lofficier has a great site dedicated to the Saint novels in French, and it is sadly missing a detailed section on The Saint Detective Magazine. UPDATE March 24: Jean-Marc has just added a new section about the magazines, and we've been working together on getting it finished.
I have already scanned eBay and ABE Books for the missing issues, and need your help in finding other sources.
Lots of news last week about the new version of The Saint series that is in development for TNT. Roger Moore's son, Geoffrey Moore, has teamed up with producer William J. MacDonald to create a new series for television. Jorge Zamacona is working on the script for a 90-minute pilot, and they are getting consulting advice from such notable long-time Saints as Ian Dickerson and Burl Barer -- both who are huge fans of the Leslie Charteris books, and hopefully can exert some influence in keeping with the gentleman thief character of Simon Templar.
There is certainly some concern, as William (Bill) J. MacDonald was one of the producers (along with Robert Evans) of the Val Kilmer Saint film by Paramount back in 1997 – a movie so un-Saint-like, that Leslie Charteris’ name was removed from the credits. The Saint (1997) was a tough movie for die-hard fans as the character that they knew and loved didn’t actually show up until the end of the movie – such is the problem with “origin stories.” That said, Bill MacDonald has surrounded himself with some great Saint this time, including Roger’s son, and we are very hopeful for a clever gentleman with his own code of moral values to emerge without the need to spend any time telling the story of how Simon Templar became The Saint.
As yet, nobody has been cast as the Saint. There was some initial speculation that it might be Geoffrey Moore himself, and that option has not been completely taken off the table as they look for The Saint of 2007.
Up for auction on eBay is Director Roy (Ward) Baker's original script for the 1964 "The Saint" episode starring Roger Moore entitled "The Good Medicine". One of the guest stars in this episode is Jean Marsh. A very interesting piece of memorabilia from the show. Mr. Baker auctioned his scripts from "The Saint" a few years ago, and the seller purchased this one from Nigel Williams Rare Books in London with the intention of using it as part of an aborted book project. The seller really doesn't want to part with it, but they could use the money. The seller had originally intended to donate the script to Boston University, which houses Saint creator Leslie Charteris archives. Perhaps the new owner would consider doing this.
This script features Mr. Baker's notes and sketches for set designs, as well as the addresses of each of the principal actors. It is kept in an original brown folder with the title of the episode.
Happy Saint Patrick's Day! And for a little time travel excerpt from Time Magazine, around the time of St. Patrick's Day in 1948:
Gregory Peck and Whodunit Writer Leslie (The Saint) Charteris, with their wives, were safe & sound in Miami after weathering a mild (46 m.p.h.) blow. Battling through rough water in their cruiser Tonga they had to anchor offshore and radio the Coast Guard to come and get them.
Noted Saintly author, Burl Barer, has posted some interesting news about his part in the new series of The Saint on TNT. This show is really going to be great, and follow in the footsteps of Roger Moore, Ian Ogilvy, and Simon Dutton.
If I have anything to say about it, and supposedly I do, the new SAINT TV project for TNT will retain the flavor of Charteris' original.
The Roger Moore series that began in 1962 used the "glob trotting celebrity" character found in Charteris later short stories, and due to the restrictive TV codes of the time, Charteris lamented that the Saint on TV bore as much similarity to his creation as Winnie the Pooh did to Captain Blood.
Times have changed -- restrictions have relaxed. Soooo...this version of The Saint will be the more dangerous and picaresque adventurer, having way too much fun as he takes on recalcitrant and contumacious oppressors while bedding the requisite bevy of beauties -- including the mercurial and romantic Ms Patricia Holm. As all Saint fans know, Simon Templar parks his shoes in numerous international locales, but Holm is where he hangs his hat -- or halo.
Bill Macdonald asked me to serve as "consultant" to the project, and has honestly taken my suggestions to heart (and page). The show should be really cool, faithful to the character, and won't have Charteris getting what he termed Graveyard Torque from spinning in his metaphoric grave. What I like best about the project, of course, is that I'm supposedly getting paid for my wit and wisdom. As with any TV or film project - or publishing for that matter -- I will be 100% convinced when the check clears the bank. As Bill has never deceived me in the past, I trust it will all come out in the wash, even if the spin cycle makes me crazy.
Glenn Hauman of ComicMix has news about a new TNT series in development:
The Saint? Again?
Simon Templar debuted in 1928 and Leslie Charteris continued writing about him until1960 when he began using ghosts to help him. Movies, TV, comic books, radio, pulps, slicks over and over in various countries...This is one durable dude.
My favorite Charteris story dates back to when George Sanders was playing the Saint at the RKO B-movie unit. Charteris bombarded the suits with letters insisting that they try getting Cary Grant for the part. Grant was by then an enormous international star...and he was going to do a series of B movie? Doubtful.
When Sanders left his younger and more vulnerable brother Tom took over. Fifteen years later Tom was aboard a bus taking him to a body pile where indigent alcoholics went to die. He didn't make it. He died en route.
The Saint may not be Tarzan or Superman or Sherlock Holmes...but he's certainly a creation who adapts well to each generation.
Variety reports today a bit of news that I've known for months: TNT is developing a new, TV series version of THE SAINT. The producer is William J. McDonald and even though he was involved in the horrendous movie version with Val Kilmer a few years ago, I'm told by sources in-the-know that this project will be more loyal to the character immortalized in the novels by Leslie Charteris. Jorge Zamacona (HOMICIDE, WANTED) is writing the script.
This evening Turner Classic Movies is showing a number of The Lone Wolf movies, starring Warren William. One of the classics being shown is The Lone Wolf Strikes from 1940. These movies are based on a series of books by Louis Joseph Vance, and some have said that they were in part an inspiration to Leslie Charteris for his Saint books. Vance's books feature Michael Lanyard, alias The Lone Wolf, as a charming gentleman rogue who was trained to be a jewel thief by a mysterious Irishman named Bourke. As with The Saint, The Lone Wolf also has a weakness for robbing from the rich and giving to the damsel in distress, all the while keeping a percentage to maintain his fine lifestyle.
Another interesting tie-in between The Lone Wolf and The Saint is that Louis Hayward played The Lone Wolf in seven TV episodes between 1954 and 1955, just one year after he starred as Simon Templar in The Saint's Girl Friday aka The Saint's Return (RKO 1953). Louis Hayward also played the title role in The Saint In New York (RKO 1938)
The Lone Wolf TV show is currently playing on GoodLife TV, with the next show airing Saturday, March 10 at 3:30AM.
The Lone Wolf is an important part of the Gentleman Thief genre, and for further information about The Lone Wolf, visit Thrilling Detective or read the novel, Alias The Lone Wolf, online for free from Project Gutenburg.
Many people are looking for "saints logo" on this site. Are they looking for the classic Fleur de Lis logo of the New Orleans Saints professional American football team? The Fleur de Lis is a symbol from the Court of Louis XIV. It is a french word that stands for "flower of the lily". The Fleur de Lis is also a symbol for New Orleans, which was adopted during the French occupation of Louisiana from 1682-1762. Traditionally, it has been used to represent French royalty, and in that sense, it is said to signify perfection, light and life.
Or perhaps they are looking for the Southampton Saints British football club's logo? Back in 2002, the Southampton Saints Football Club launched an anti-racism campaign using The Saint's logo by permission from the Estate of Leslie Charteris.
Or perhaps they really are looking for the famous Saint stickman logo that Simon Templar, alias The Saint, used as a calling card in many of the adventures written by Leslie Charteris. In this case, Simon Templar.co.uk has a brief illustrated history of some of the various styles, adventures and artists humour of the famous Saint logo collected from books, film and other publications. Visit their Stickman Gallery for a great show of The Saint's logo through the years.
From Louis Hayward, to George Sanders, to Hugh Sinclair, to Felix Marten, to Jean Marais, along to Roger Moore, then Ian Ogilvy, and finally on to Val Kilmer, The Saint has appeared in a large number of movies. In fact Simon Templar, alias The Saint, by Leslie Charteris was recently named the #2 spy movie hero of all-time, just behind James Bond.
The page on this site about The Saint in movies and films has been updated to include a large number of movie posters.
If you know of any other versions of the movie posters, especially if you have any in your own private collection, we'd be very interesting in seeing them.
A couple of these posters are available in reprint form from the moviegoods.com website.
The saint.org website devoted to Leslie Charteris, Simon Templar, and The Saint has been up and running for over 4100 days (more than 10 years), and the log file contains close to 20.6 million entries! Using Analog 6.0 for Macintosh, I have compiled and posted a complete statistical usage report for www.saint.org from October 18, 1995 through January 31, 2007.
I have also posted single-month reports to get better insight into the month-to-month differences and trends: 2007: Jan 2006: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
For extra credit, please comment below on any special insights you might have into what these statistics actually mean!
Since Google Search was added to this site, people have been searching for The Saint in many different ways. Here are the top 20 searches, ranked in order:
Squidoo was started by Seth Godin and allows anyone to create a unique vantage point, called a "lens," of the worldwide web with a certain focus. It is an interesting idea that benefits charities and gives everyone a forum for sharing their view of the world.
The Saint's Volvo This is a lens all about The Saint's Volvo 1800 as seen on the 1960s TV show starring Roger Moore.
Leslie Charteris and The Saint Leslie Charteris was the author of The Saint books. His modern-day Robin Hood was named Simon Templar, whose alias was The Saint. Roger Moore drove around TV in the 1960s in a white Volvo P1800 on the TV series, The Saint.
The Saint's Jaguar XJS In the late 1970's Robert S. Baker starting gathering a production team for The Son of The Saint in which a young and up-and-coming star would play Simon Templar's son. The idea would be to have Roger Moore introduce the series, and then occasionally...
Burl Barer, Edgar Award Winning Brilliant Author Burl Barer is an Edgar Award winner and two time Anthony Award nominee with ten or eleven or twelve books in print, depending upon what country you live in, and what language you read. Burl Barer has extensive media, advertising, marketing, and publi...
The Saint FAQ at www.saint.org/faq.htm has been freshly updated with a lot of great new information.
The frequently asked questions (FAQ) about The Saint and Leslie Charteris was started in 1997 by Ian Dickerson, Honorary Secretary of The Saint Club, and is maintained with help of Dan Bodenheimer, webmaster of www.saint.org, and Burl Barer, author of "The Saint: A Complete History in Print, Film, Radio and Television. 1928 - 1992" and "The Saint" (movie tie-in paperback).
Please send all suggestions, corrections, questions, etc. to saint.club@gmail.com or use the comment links below.
Peter L. Stern & Co., Inc., a rare book dealer in Boston has a great number of amazing Leslie Charteris editions available for sale. The majority of them are fine presentation editions in special clamshell boxes that are inscribed by Leslie Charteris to his own mother. These are extremely rare, and quite exceptional items to have been made available. Most of them are editions of The Saint's early adventures, and there are a few non-Saint's as well.
Here's a sample:
Daredevil. London: Ward, Lock, 1929, 1929. First Edition. A few tiny cloth spots; very good to fine in a custom clamshell box; Kaye bookplate. Presentation copy; with an exceptional inscription from the author to his mother, "To Mother - with my love. An unlimited edition has been specially prepared for private circulation among the general public, of which a few will be numbered & signed by the Author. This is No: 1. Leslie Charteris. Second of January 1929."
The Holy Terror. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1932, 1932. First Edition. Cloth spotted and faded; very good in a custom clamshell box; Kaye bookplate. Presentation copy; inscribed by the author, "for Mother with love Leslie Charteris."
Once More The Saint. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1933, 1933. First Edition. Very good in a custom clamshell box; Kaye bookplate. Presentation copy; inscribed by the author, "for Mother with love Leslie."
The Last Hero. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1930, 1930. First Edition. A few tiny cloth spots; very good to fine in a custom clamshell box; Kaye bookplate. Presentation copy; inscribed by the author, "for Mother (and it IS a good book). Leslie Charteris. 8.5.30."
The saint.org website devoted to Leslie Charteris, Simon Templar, and The Saint has been up and running for just about 4100 days (more than 10 years), and the log file contains close to 20.4 million entries! Using Analog 6.0 for Macintosh, I have compiled and posted a complete statistical usage report for www.saint.org from October 18, 1995 through December 31, 2006.
There are annual statistical reports for 2006, 2005, 2004, and 1997.
Happy New Year 2007 to all the Saint fans out there in the world. It's shaping up to be a good year for The Saint, and we have a lot of good things to look forward to. The forthcoming release of the new DVD box set of The Return of The Saint is going to be especially good.
The buzz and rumors on the new Saint TV show from Geoffrey Moore are starting to get louder, and if that becomes a reality then there will certainly be a lot more to talk about in the coming months!
We're also keeping a sharp eye on Ian Dickerson's biography of Leslie Charteris, entitled, "A Saint I Aint!"
A nice collection of Saints were in London recently, where on December 7th, 2006, we had Robert S. Baker, Ian Ogilvy, Malcolm J. Christopher, Dan Bodenheimer, Ian Dickerson, and John Goldsmith all in the same DVD recording studio. The team at Network DVD is putting the final touches on the upcoming Return of The Saint DVD box set, and it is looking like a true winner with a number of great extras to look forward to watching.
Of course, during my stay I had to make a quick detour to the Sherlock Holmes museum on Baker Street. Not only is Sherlock Holmes great reading in his own right, Leslie Charteris actually co-authored a number of the Sherlock Holmes radio shows in 1944 and 1945 under the name Bruce Taylor, writing with Denis Green.
I have been collecting The Saint books by Leslie Charteris for more than 20 years now and amazingly enough there are still missing items from my collection! Please take a look at my want list and let me know if you have a source for any of the items listed there. I am especially eager to get the last remaining Severn House edition with Ian Ogilvy on the cover. Thank you and please e-mail me at "saint" as this domain (@saint.org).
The saint.org website devoted to Leslie Charteris, Simon Templar, and The Saint has been up and running for over 4050 days (more than 10 years), and the log file contains almost 20.1 million entries! Using Analog 6.0 for Macintosh, I have compiled and posted a complete statistical usage report for www.saint.org through November 30, 2006.
Television Heaven has a great article entitled, Baker and Berman: A Saintly Combination within their Saint section that is well worth reading. It covers the great partnership between Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman on the production of The Saint TV series starring Roger Moore.
The link to The Saint came by way of John Paddy Carstairs, who directed the filming of The Saint in London in 1939. Carstairs eventually became very friendly with Leslie Charteris and years later it was he who suggested the idea of a TV series to Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman.
eBay has been the consistant best source for buying Saint items worldwide for a long time. To make it easier to find and bid on the latest new Saint items on eBay I have created an eBay Saint RSS feed. This feed searches for all items that have the words The Saint or Le Saint and also have at least one mention of Roger Moore, Ian Ogilvy, Leslie Charteris, George Sanders, or the Volvo 1800. It also leaves out all VHS and DVD listings as they are really numerous! The listings are sorted by newest items first, so the most recent additions will always be at the top.
This can be used in a couple different ways:
You can go directly to the RSS feed and connect it to your My Yahoo, Google, or MSN Home page using the tools in the side menu of the Feedburner feed. eBay Saint RSS feed.
You can subscribe to e-mail updates via the FeedBlitz form below:
I've been working on expanding this site's information about the various cars The Saint has driven over the years. I now have three pages about Simon Templar's automotive exploits, and I am looking for more references in the books by Leslie Charteris about the mighty and mythical Hirondel.
I have just added a page about the blue Jensen Interceptor that Simon Dutton drove in the 1989 as Simon Templar, alias The Saint, in the six made-for-TV movies. The car was a 1976 Jensen Interceptor Saloon Mark III painted Briazs Blue. After filming was completed, a Saintly plaque was added to the dashboard and the car was sold to a Doctor in England.
I am always looking for more information and details about the Saint's cars, so please look at The Saint's Volvo and The Saint's Jaguar pages as well and let me know if there are any additions or corrections.
For all of you Saint fans out there with website or blogs of your own. Please link to this site at http://www.saint.org/ to promote the latest news about The Saint and Leslie Charteris. It's important for all those interested in Roger Moore as Simon Templar, the Volvo connection, or the Val Kilmer movie to find the latest news in a quick and timely manner!
Many thanks for your support, and remember to link today!
<a href="http://www.saint.org/">The Saint and Leslie Charteris News</a>
On October 31st Sir Roger Moore unveiled a plaque at Elstree Studios to commemorate his time working there on The Saint and subsequent feature films. Keeping him company at the presentation were a number of his former colleagues who worked with him on the show such as producer Robert S. Baker, Johnny Goodman, Malcolm Christopher, Dave Prowse, June Randall, Burt Kwok and many others.
Visit the official website of Leslie Charteris to see more pictures from the event, including a few good ones of Roger signing the hood of the Saint's Volvo 1800.
Bill Cawthon has written a great article about the history of The Saint's Volvo that features a couple of nice pictures of early models.
One of the interesting things that is discussed in the article is that after Leslie Charteris sold the television rights to Producer Robert Baker and Lew Grade of ITC their first visualization of Simon Templar on TV was of Patrick McGoohan driving a Jaguar E-Type. When the producers went to Jaguar they were turned down as Jaguar felt they had enough exposure and could not keep up with the demand as it was. Therefore they ended up with the other hot car introduced at the Geneva Auto Show in March 1961 by buying one at full price from a London Volvo dealer. Luckily, as the show took off , Volvo kept the show well stocked with fresh 1800's as the years went buy. Older cars were cut apart for interior shots, crashed, and otherwise used by Roger Moore as his personal vehicle of choice.
The saint.org website devoted to Leslie Charteris, Simon Templar, and The Saint has been up and running for over 4000 days (more than 10 years), and the log file contains almost 20 million entries! Using Analog 6.0 for Macintosh, I have compiled and posted a complete statistical usage report for www.saint.org through October 31, 2006.
I have also posted a shorter version of just the last month to see what the near-term trends look like.
In my travels I often run into The Saint in strange places, and it's surprising the number of bars named The Saint. Probably none of them have any relation to Leslie Charteris' Simon Templar, and yet there must be some connection?
Here's a short list of a few I know of in London:
The Saint Bar and Kitchen on Rose Street near St Paul's Cathedral in London.
Saint Bar on Great Newport Street near Leicester Square in London.
Saint's Bar in The Saint Gregory Hotel near Liverpool Street in London.
I'm sure that there are others in many other cities around the world. I have heard of one in Boston, and another in Melbourne.
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