The purpose of this series is to promote the study of writing in the English language through the introduction of the major figures writing in English throughout the ages. They provide an analytical and historical framework for understanding their subjects. Ford Madox Ford is increasingly recognized as one of the most significant novelists of the 20th century. His development as a writer is traced, and cogent analysis of his major works like "The Good Soldier" and "Parade's End" is provided, whilst attention is drawn to lesser works that have been unjustly neglected. Anthony Fowles deals even-handedly with the intense friendship and pivotal artistic collaboration between Ford and Joseph Conrad.

In this comprehensive review of Joseph Heller's work, Anthony Fowles challenges the notion that the masterpiece 'Catch-22' is the sum of Heller's achievement. Fowles presents and analyses Heller's novels alongside each other and makes the case for their intrinsic and enduring interest.

The position of Raymond Chandler in the pantheon of American letters has long been subject to much debate. Naturally imbued with a literary sensibility Chandler helped to revolutionise the crime genre, bringing to it a colourful, hard edged vernacular allied to a modern social commentary. Through the figure of private eye, Philip Marlowe, Chandler created a contemporary knight errant whose not so picturesque adventures trudging the mean streets of Los Angeles helped to vividly define the moral dilemmas of a dark, uncertain post-war world. And yet - can The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely and Lady in the Lake be considered 'literature'? Author Anthony Fowles - who freely admits to writing half-adozen 'sub-Chandlerian' thrillers - brings to the discussion both the detached eye of the professional critic and the sympathetic understanding of the practitioner. It is a background which allows Fowles to make a balanced, finely-nuanced contribution to the ongoing Chandler debate, refusing to relegate the noir master to the wilderness of 'genre writer' but equally avoiding outlandish claims of literary pre-eminence. In circumventing the pitfalls and simplicities of 'either/or', Fowles places Chandler's achievements in a fully-realised context, enabling the reader to appreciate more deeply the peculiar strengths and limitations of the prose lyricist of the American mid-century.