Georges Simenon was born at Liege in Belgium in 1903. At sixteen he began work as a journalist on the Gazette de Liege. He has published 158 books, many of them psychological novels and others in the Inspector Maigret series, and his work has been admired by almost all the leading French and English critics. His books have been translated into twenty-three languages and forty-four of them have been filmed; his psychological novels have had a great influence on the French cinema. He has travelled all over the world, and at one time lived on a cutter making long journeys of exploration round the coasts of Northern Europe. He is married and has three children. His recreations are riding, fishing, and golf. Taken from 1959 Penguin book jacket of My Friend Maigret.