Roy Peter Martin


Roy Peter Martin was an English author who wrote primarily under the pseudonyms James Melville and Hampton Charles.
Martin was born in London and studied philosophy at Birkbeck College. He served in the Royal Air Force before a career first in the Royal Festival Hall and then as a diplomat in the British Council based in Japan.
As James Melville he wrote a series of 13 detective novels set in Japan featuring Tetsuo Otani, the fictional Superintendent of Police in Kobe, and several historical novels, including The Imperial Way, which was inspired by the February 26 Incident. He also wrote three Miss Seeton novels under the pseudonym Hampton Charles, as well as a cook book, Japanese Cooking together with Joan Martin, his second wife.
He wrote a history of the Japanese imperial family, The Chrysanthemum Throne, which was published in the United Kingdom in 1997 by Sutton Publishing Limited and later in the United States by University of Hawai'i Press.

Works

Novels under the pseudonym James Melville

  1. Wages of Zen
  2. The Chrysanthemum Chain
  3. A Sort of Samurai
  4. The Ninth Netsuke
  5. Sayonara, Sweet Amaryllis
  6. Death of a Daimyo
  7. The Death Ceremony
  8. Go Gently, Gaijin
  9. Kimono for a Corpse
  10. The Reluctant Ronin
  11. A Haiku for Hanae
  12. The Bogus Buddha
  13. The Body Wore Brocade

    Novels under the pseudonym Hampton Charles

  1. Miss Seeton, by Appointment
  2. Advantage Miss Seeton
  3. Miss Seeton at the Helm