OzSaint
Who was Leslie Charteris?
Leslie Charteris (pictured) is the author who created The Saint.
Leslie Charles Bowyer Yin was born in Singapore in 1907, and changed his name in 1926. His father, a doctor, was Chinese, and his mother was English.
As a young man, Charteris worked in many odd jobs including being a rubber planter, tin miner, pearl fisherman, seaman, gold prospector, and bartender. Charteris wrote a number of crime novels in the late 1920s (one of which was 'Meet the Tiger' in 1928, the first Saint novel) and he had had enough success to leave Cambridge University in his first year to pursue a writing career, deciding to devote his creative output to furthering the adventures of The Saint alone.
Charteris with Roger Moore
By the time of his death in April 1993, Charteris had written almost 100 original Saint adventures, plus countless compilations and anthologies...
He also wrote a number of non-Saint books.
Charteris can be seen briefly in the Ogilvy story "Collision Course".
The Saint Club maintains a longer biography.
