I can only say that if Harry were alive to read your message he would have been delighted. Comments from around the world always gladdened his heart and none more so than those that came from India. Your country became his by adoption and sometimes it seemed that he was more Indian than English in the way he thought. Your wish for a collected Keating may happen one day but not unless there are more people like yourself wanting this to happen. I think that Penguin books over here publishing four Ghote titles in their Modern Classics series was a beginning and this has been followed by Bloomsbury Reader buying fourteen of the out of print earlier non-Ghote books to produce as eBooks. There is no question that electronic reading is here to stay and we can only hope it will boost the love of the printed book and not destroy it. – we must keep our fingers crossed. But these days publishers can no longer afford to produce books in any form unless they are more or less guaranteed to sell exceptionally well. Perhaps if at long last Ghote became a TV series – and there have been many efforts in the past which did not quite come off – then that would create a renewed interest in the books.

You are right that it is the anniversary of Harry’s death on the 27th of this month and I still find it impossible to believe that he won’t walk through the front door at any minute. In some ways, for me, he is very much alive because I have embarked on writing his biography which with his enormous literary legacy will take quite a while to complete. Thank you for thinking of getting in touch and I send greetings to you and all his fans around the world.

Sheila Keating.

Sheila Mitchell

You mention the Ghote books in particular and a wish to trace some of the titles you do not possess. If there is anything I can do to help you fill in the gaps then let me know. As you probably know Harry not only wrote about India and what you say about his ‘humour, insight into human nature and his ability with dialogue’, seems to me to be reflected in much of his other work such as the Harriet Martens detective series – all of which I had the pleasure of recording as Audio Books – and in the series he wrote, under the pseudonym Evelyn Hervey,about a Victorian governess. Miss Unwin, who ges involved in crimes. An interesting fact to emerge at Harry’s funeral was the singling out by our friend, the eminent crime writer, PD James, of Harry’s straight novel A Long Walk to Wimbledon, set in some future time when disaster has befallen London. Of coyrse I am prejudiced but it seems to me that his imagination knew no bounds.

Thank you for your cheering words Sheila (Harry’s wife)

Sheila Mitchell

I am writing to say how sorry I am to hear about the passing of Mr Keating, please could you send my condolences to the family.

Nick