English novelists

More at home abroad

A-CURSORY examination of the lists of bestselling fiction around the world (published regularly in The Economist's monthly Review section) invariably throws up some cross-border curiosities. For example. the way that Sophie's World . a re-telling of the history of western philosophy (with interesting-though entirely dispensable-fictional links) by a Norwegian academic called Jostein Gaarder. reached the top of the bestseller lists throughout the world. Or Rosamunde Pilcher's extraordinary popularity in Sweden. or Minette Walters's in Germany. All these authors. however. are also

widely read in their home country.

There is an even more curious bunch

of novelists who are popular

abroad but scarcely remem-

bered back home. Take

the example of

one of the most prolific thriller writers of this century. Ed-

gar Wallace 1875-1932 1 Wallace was the illegit-

imate son of an actor and I was brought up in south London by a Billingsgate fish

porter. In his time he was known as the fiction factory . and among his 170 books were such bestselling titles as The Four Just

Men 1905 and The Crimson Circle 1922 Wallace also wrote successful

plays. and just before his death he was busy working on the screenplay of King Kong in Hollywood. In recent years. Wallace's reputation in his native land has taken a nose divescarcely any-of-his books are still in print. I n Germany. however. it is quite a different matter. Wallace has consistently remained very popular there. and at the moment about 50 of his titles are in print. According to A.P. Watt. the London agency responsible for the Wallace estate. the books are currently being re-copyrighted. and a serious auction is going on in Germany...