Raymond Chandler

Born in Nabraska of Irish Quaker parents, educated at Dulwich College, and in the `mean streets'' of Los Angeles about which he wrote, Raymond Chandler-writer, oil executive, poet, recluse, charmer, gentlman, drunk-was full of contradictions as his origins. His seven Philip Marlowe stories had sold 5 million copies by the time of his death in1059. Since the first authorised biography 20 years ago,...