Collins, (William) Wilkie

English author of mystery and suspense novels. He wrote The Woman in White (1860), often called the first English detective fiction novel, and The Moonstone (1868) (with Sergeant Cuff, one of the first detectives in English literature). Both novels have been successfully dramatized for television.

Collins was born in London and qualified as a barrister. In 1848 he wrote a life of his father, the painter William Collins, and in 1850 published his first novel, Antonina. In 1851 he formed a friendship with the novelist Charles Dickens, with whom he collaborated on a number of works, including the play A Message from the Sea (1861).