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Georges Simenon created a furore worthy of the most bed-hopping of politicians with his 1971 autobiography, in which he mentioned having sex with more than 20,000 women. This jaw-dropping claim was met with scepticism: how had he written so many novels if his entire time seems to have been spent in carnal abandon?

Simenon admirers were alienated by what seemed like boastfulness - but (fortunately) it's not necessary to like a writer to admire his work. By the time of his death in 1989, Simenon was the most successful writer of crime fiction in a language other than English in the entire field, and his French copper Maigret had become an institution. Simenon had created a writing legacy quite as substantial as many more “serious” French literary figures - and the writer now looks like a Trojan horse for the growth of interest in foreign crime writing in the 21st century. His most iconic creation is, of course, the pipe-smoking inspector of police, Jules Maigret.

All the elements that made the character so beloved were carefully burnished by the author: Commissaire in the Paris police headquarters at the Quai des Orfèvres, Maigret is a singularly more human figure than such forbidding, analytical sleuths as Sherlock Holmes, and his approach to solving crimes is more dogged and painstaking than the theatrics of other literary detectives.

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Simenon's protagonist is a quietly spoken observer of human nature who uses the techniques of psychology on those he encounters (both the guilty and the innocent) - without immediate moral condemnation. Simenon had Maigret working in the vice squad, but without the tongue-clucking disapproval that was the establishment view of prostitution (Madame de Gaulle sought to have all the brothels in Paris closed down).

Maigret, with his eternal sympathy for the victim, saw these women in a non-judgmental fashion and remained sympathetic, even in the face of dislike and distrust from the girls. Simenon's non-Maigret standalone novels are among the most commanding in the genre (notably The Stain on The Snow, an unsparing analysis of the mind of a youthful criminal); André Gide's assessment of Simenon as “the greatest French novelist of our times” may have been hyperbolic, but as a trenchant picture of French society, Simenon's books collectively forge a fascinating analysis.

One to read: The Stain on The Snow (1953)

Paul Theroux on Maigret’s creator

The National Film Theatre’s retrospective celebrating the centenary of the life and books of George Simenon

The Art of Fiction interview with George Simenon, Summer 1955

Inspector Maigret’s official site

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