Georges Simenon
Georges Simenon was born in Liege in 1903. To this day, he is still the most read Belgium writer. If the tremendous success of his police stories cast a shadow on the rest of his work, one must not forget that Simenon also wrote tales, short stories, articles, and reports.
Simenon left school when he was fifteen and started writing back pages for the Gazette de Liège. His first novel Au pont des arches was published in 1920. Two years later, Simenon left Liege for Paris where he published short stories and articles in various newspapers. His most famous character, Maigret, first appeared in 1930 and Simenon started working with Renoir on movies adaptations the very next year. While he wrote not less than 193 novels, the man also spent a large part of his life travelling around the world. He even lived in the US and in Québec for a while. His last novel, Maigret and Mr Charles was published in 1972. After that, even if he was celebrated everywhere, Simenon started living a much more quiet life and concentrated on the writing of his memoirs. He died in Lausanne in 1989.