which chronicles twenty-four hours in the life of a police station in the north of England, is quite similar in conception to Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novel Hail, Hail the Gang's All Here (1971). Wainwright was also a passionate traditional jazz and swing music fan, and some of his novels have a strong jazz background, particularly the black comedy Do Nothin' till You Hear from Me (1977). In an interview given to the Italian periodical Il Giallo Mondadori in 1975, Wainwright cited Raymond Chandler, Ed McBain and Ian Fleming as his favourite authors. Critical assessment Wainwright always led a very private life, almost never giving interviews and rarely appearing in public, while enjoying a steady if not spectacular success in his lifetime. As a consequence of this, his name is all but forgotten nowadays (his death went completely unrecorded by newspapers and reference books until 2003), and a critical assessment of his huge output is still yet to come, considering also that all his books are currently out of print. Novels as Jack Ripley Davis Doesn't Live Here Any More. (Hamish Hamilton, London). 1971 The Pig Got up and Slowly Walked Away. (Hamish Hamilton, London). 1971 My Word, You Should Have Seen Us. (Hamish Hamilton, London). 1972 My God, How the Money Rolls in. (Hamish Hamilton, London). 1972 See also John Wainwright, Tail-End Charlie: One Man's Journey through a War, Macmillan, 1978 John Wainwright, Wainwright's Beat: One Man's Journey with a Police Force, Macmillan, 1987 William L. DeAndrea, Encyclopedia Mysteriosa, Prentice Hall, 1989 Bruce F. Murphy, The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery, St. Martin's Minotaur, 1989 Claude Mesplède, Dictionnaire des littératures policières, Joseph K, 2003; second edition 2007 Claude Mesplède, Luca Conti, Giovanni Zucca, Dizionario delle letterature poliziesche, Mondadori, 2009 Judith Rhodes, "John Wainwright", in St James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers, 1996 References External links A complete bibliography (in English) An essay on Wainwright's life and works (in Italian) 1921 births 1995 deaths English mystery writers English crime fiction writers 20th-century British novelists English male novelists 20th-century English male writers Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Royal Air Force airmen