Georges Simenon

[Keebleman]

He wrote 500 books!  He shagged 10,000 women!

Well, the figures can be disputed, especially regarding the women (and whatever the total, over 99% of them were prostitutes and so shouldn't really count), but he was a superb writer.  Genre fiction can be very enticing in theory - the prospect of sitting down on a beach or flight or long train journey with a "really good thriller/detective story/horror novel" is always a pleasing one - but too often the book itself doesn't match the ideal.

Simenon, though, has yet to fail me.  I have only read a few of his books, ten or twelve at most, but in plotting and milieu and above all in the psychological richness of his characters his achievement is consistently high.  And as with the very best writers there is no sense of effort, you don't feel he is trying to impress you.  And, yes, his books can very easily be read in one sitting on that beach/flight/train. 

Oddly enough he puts me in mind of Wodehouse.  Both extremely prolific, both supreme artists who made their work look easy, both wrote short books that seem disposable but which you don't ever want to part with.  Oh yes, and both behaved questionably in WW2.

Even taking out all the prostitutes though, I think Simenon had it over Plum as a cocksman.