A Late Frost

British critic and author Mike Ripley sends some very sad news our way: Rodney D. Wingfield, the former oil company salesman who created the series character Detective Inspector William Edward “Jack” Frost of Denton C.I.D., “died at his home in Essex, England, last night. Rodney was 79 and had been fighting cancer very privately for some years.” Ripley continues:

An established writer of radio plays, Rodney developed his radio character, Inspector Jack Frost, into the novel Frost at Christmas during the 1970s, though it took almost 12 years to find a publisher. Four more novels and a hugely popular TV series, starring Sir David Jason, followed.

Shortly before his final illness, Rodney, who wrote as R.D. Wingfield, completed the sixth in the series, Killing Frost, which will be published posthumously in the UK in the spring of 2008.

We offer our condolences to Wingfield’s family.

READ MORE: “A Tribute to R.D. Wingfield,” by Stuart
MacBride (Halfhead).