The Cask

Freeman Wills Crofts was born on the 1st June 1879 in Dublin, Ireland.

Crofts was raised in County Down and trained as a civil engineer, spending decades working for Irish railways. It was only during a long illness in 1919 that he began his literary career with ‘The Cask’. It was an immediate success launching his career and establishing him as a pioneer of the Golden Age of detective fiction.

His most famous character was the methodical Inspector French of Scotland Yard who appeared in 30 books. He was much admired for inventing the police procedural genre together with their watertight plots and complex transport timetables.

Freeman Croft Wills died on the 11th April 1957 in Worthing, West Sussex, England. He was 77.

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E-book: 25 Juni 2026