Robert Bruce Montgomery, who wrote under the pseudonym Edmund Crispin, was a British composer and crime author, best known for the Gervase Fen series of novels. Crispin was born in Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire, and attended Taylors' School and St John’s College, where he graduated in 1943 with a bachelor's degree in modern languages. While at St John's College, he served as choirmaster and organ scholar, roles he later reprised while teaching at Shrewsbury School.
Crispin first gained recognition as a composer of choral and vocal music, most notably composing the acclaimed “An Oxford Requiem” in 1951. However, he transitioned towards film and composed for several popular comedies aired on British TV during the 1950s. He was the composer of the original Carry On theme and its six scores: Cruising, Regardless, Constable, Teacher, Nurse, and Sergeant. He also composed the scores for the Love, Large, Sea, and House films of the “Doctor” film franchise. Additionally, Montgomery wrote the scores and screenplays for films like “Raising the Wind”, “The Brides of Fu Manchu”, “Twice Round the Daffodils”, “No Kidding”, and “Watch Your Stern”, among many others from the 1950s.
Under the pseudonym Edmund Crispin, Montgomery wrote nine detective novels and two collections of short stories. The stories feature Oxford don Gervase Fen, who is a Professor of English at the University and a fellow of St Christopher's College, a fictional institution that Crispin locates next to St John's College. The whodunit novels have complex plots and fantastic, somewhat unbelievable solutions, including examples of the locked room mystery. They are written in a humorous, literary and sometimes farcical style and they are also among the few mystery novels to break the fourth wall occasionally and speak directly to the audience. Crispin is considered by many to be one of the last great exponents of the 'classic' crime mystery.
Crispin was a heavy drinker and there was a long gap in his writing during a time when he was suffering from alcohol problems. He had always led a quiet life in Totnes, a quiet corner of Devon, enlivened by music, reading, church-going and bridge, resisting all attempts to develop or exploit the district, visiting London as little as possible. He moved to a new house he had built at Week, a hamlet near Dartington, in 1964. Late in life, he married his secretary Ann in 1976, just two years before he died from alcohol related problems. His music was composed using his real name, Bruce Montgomery.