Welcome to the
Unofficial
Arthur W. Upfield
&
Inspector Napoleon
Bonaparte
Homepage
This page is dedicated to
writer Arthur
W. Upfield and his famous half-aborigine sleuth, Detective-Inspector
Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte of the Queensland State Police
Criminal Investigation Branch.
Upfield wrote twenty-nine
Bony mystery
stories between 1929 and 1962, as well as several other books
including mysteries, romances, and an autobiography. I hope to
add information on these other books to this site later as I have
a chance to obtain and read them.
Arthur W. Upfield was born
in England,
but moved to Australia and adopted it as his homeland. He travelled
throughout the country and tried his hand at many trades, including
boundary rider and station hand. His travels lent him a weath
of first hand experiences that make his books fascinating and
believable. He captures the majesty of Australia, especially the
outback country, and its people, both black and white.
Upfield's books have been
troublesomely
difficult to find as a result of their frequently erratic availability.
As far as I know, none of the "non-Bony" books was ever
printed beyond their original printings, and even many volumes
in the Bony mysteries are frequently out of print for long periods
of time. Angus and Robertson of Sydney published most of the Bony
novels in paperback throughout the 1970's, 1980's and into the
early 1990's then stopped printing them. In America a good number
of the novels were printed by Collier/Scribner's during the same
period, then suddenly stopped as well in the mid-1990's. It appears
that Scribner's is slowly re-releasing a few Bony titles in new,
larger, and somewhat overpriced editions. If you are interested
in getting your hands on these books, your best bet is to check
at second-hand bookshops; Upfield's books aren't as plentiful
as they used to be (I remember when Powell's Books in Portland
had an entire shelf of Upfield's books, but now I could hold their
stock in one hand), but they're still out there and if you're
patient you should be able to find them. I've also found that
public libraries frequently have complete sets of the Doubleday
Crime Club editions. Libraries and especially nursing homes and
convalescent hospitals usually have some of the Ulverscroft large
print editions of the Bony novels -- I borrowed several from my
great-grandmother's nursing home before I was able to find copies
to buy.
In the early 1970's Norfolk
International
released a series of television mysteries based on the Bony novels
of Arthur Upfield. The show was named "Boney" and starred James
Laurenson.
As the show has never aired in the United States I've never had
the opportunity to see it, but you can find more information here.
If you have any information
you would
like to pass along, please
. I'm
also always glad to hear from other lover's of Upfield's books.
Helpful comments for the website are always welcome too.
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