HAROLD OREL is now retired, but is affiliated with the University of Kansas, USA. He has published nearly 30 books, including a number of previous volumes in the Interviews and Recollections series (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1991), Gilbert and Sullivan (1994), The Brontës (1996), Charles Darwin (2000); A Kipling Chronology (1990), Thomas Hardy's Personal Writings (1990), The Historical Novel from Scott to Sabatini (1995)). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and has lectured in England, Scotland, France, Switzerland, India and Japan.