Chief Inspector Reginald "Reg" Wexford is a recurring character in a series of detective novels by English crime writer Ruth Rendell. He made his first appearance in the author's 1964 debut From Doon With Death, and has since been the protagonist of 23 more novels (plus some short stories). In the TVS television series The Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1987-2000), he was played by George Baker.
Wexford is a Liberal Democrat though, and I am a Labour party member, in fact, a Labour peer, so I am further to the left than him.
Wexford is an intelligent, sensitive man. He has a placid wife, Dora, and two daughters, Sheila and Sylvia. He has a good relationship with Sheila (his favourite) but a difficult relationship with Sylvia (who feels slighted though he has never actually intended to slight her). He also has a strong friendship with DI Mike Burden.
The Wexford series of novels are set in "Kingsmarkham", a fictional town in Sussex.[2] Kingsmarkham has been reported as "inspired by Midhurst in West Sussex".[3]
Rendell says that Kingsmarkham "is not romantic at all, (with) ugly modern buildings, huge supermarkets, open car lots and bus garages, and sprawling blocks of local authority housing with the police station a concrete box of tricks amid the quiet crowded houses of High Street … a piece of gaudy litter in a pastoral glade and having modern furniture and (a) sleek, gleaming reception counter".[4]
^Rendell, Ruth (2007) [1964]. From Doon with Death (2 ed.). New York: Ballantine Books. p. 220. ISBN978-0-345-49845-8. (Introducing Chief Inspector Wexford by Daniel Mallory; from 1990 Rendell interview with Marilyn Stasio)
