Bentley, E.C.

Edmund Clerihew Bentley was a novelist, critic, man of letters and close friend of Hilaire Belloc, John Buchan, G. K. Chesterton and other prominent literary figures. Bentley is primarily remembered for his classic whodunits and as the inventor of a form of humorous verse he called "clerihew". He was born in London and educated at St. Paul's School and Merton College, Oxford. His father was a civil servant and rugby player who played for England. Bentley studied law at Oxford between 1894 and 1898, but he abandoned law for journalism after successfully having published humorous verse and columns. He was a respected literature critic at the end of his career.