In memory of Alan Bradley

Beloved author Alan Bradley, best known for his global bestselling Flavia de Luce mystery series, has passed away at the age of 87 in the Isle of Man.

Denise Bukowski, Bradley’s literary agent, said: “While travelling with Alan in 2007, on his first trip to London when he won the Debut Dagger Award from the Crime Writers’ Association for the best unpublished first novel, he told me about every landmark, which he knew of only from his English family’s love of the old country. Two years later, at age 70, his first novel was published and the series sold in thirty-nine territories; he was travelling the world. Alan delivered all of his books on time, and each one was better than the one before it. He was without fail a gentleman and a scholar. I will be forever grateful that he introduced me to Flavia de Luce.”

Kristin Cochrane, chief executive officer of his publisher Doubleday Canada, said: “We are deeply saddened by the loss of Alan Bradley, beloved author of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, and eleven subsequent ‘Flavia de Luce’ novels. Alan’s extraordinary imagination, generosity of spirit, and wonderful craft as a storyteller brought joy to readers in Canada and around the world for more than fifteen years. I am joined by colleagues across Penguin Random House Canada in our appreciation for Alan’s great books, and our admiration for the care with which he shared Flavia with the world. We are profoundly grateful for the privilege of publishing Alan Bradley and will continue to celebrate his remarkable legacy by ensuring his stories endure for generations to come.”

Alan Bradley was born in Toronto in 1938. He grew up in Cobourg, Ontario, where he began his career as a radio and television engineer, before moving to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in 1969 to work as the Director of Television Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan. In 1994, he took early retirement to write full-time, moving with his wife Shirley to Kelowna, British Columbia. Before turning to novels, he published short stories for children and adults, lifestyle and arts columns, and several screenplays. He wrote a non-fiction book, Ms. Holmes of Baker Street and a memoir, The Shoebox Bible.

Bradley’s first Flavia de Luce novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, received the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award, the Dilys Winn Award, the Arthur Ellis Award, the Agatha Award, the Macavity Award, and the Barry Award, and was nominated for the Anthony Award. The eleven books in the Flavia de Luce series have sold over six million copies worldwide and are presently published in thirty-nine countries and thirty-six languages.

Alan' Bradley’s final Flavia de Luce novel and the twelfth in the series, Numb Were the Beadsman’s Fingers, will be published by Doubleday Canada on November 3, 2026. The film adaptation of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, titled Flavia, directed by Bharat Nalluri and starring Molly Belle Wright, Martin Freeman, Jonathan Pryce, and Toby Jones, will be released later this year. Bradley was able to see a final cut of the film and had previously been able to visit the set during production and noted it as a highlight of his life.