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The Toff

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The Toff

In the series of adventure novels by John Creasey, the Toff is the nickname of the Honourable Richard Rollison, an upper-class crime sleuth. Creasey published almost 60 Toff adventures, beginning with Introducing the Toff in 1938 and continuing through The Toff and the Crooked Copper, published in 1977, four years after the author's death.

Rollison is in many ways similar to Simon Templar, although Creasey's other character The Baron bears an even closer resemblance. Unlike Templar and The Baron, Rollison has no earlier life of crime, although he frequently breaks or bends the law in pursuing his investigations.

Rollison's calling card includes a caricature of a toff—a line drawing with a top hat, monocle, bow-tie and cigarette with a holder. His flat includes a trophy wall, on which is a memento of every case Rollison helped to solve.

In these stories Rollison is moderately well-known, as his exploits are frequently reported in the newspapers. He is as at home in upper-crust society circles as he is in the East End of London.

The Toff was introduced in the tuppenny weekly crime magazine The Thriller in 1933, while the first novel was published in 1938.

After Creasey's death, William Vivian Butler wrote The Toff and the Dead Man's Finger (1978).

In 1961, Creasey wrote a play titled The Toff for the Salisbury Arts Theatre.

The Toff is a wealthy bachelor living in a Mayfair flat at 22 Gresham Terrace. Although the settings of the stories keep up with the times, Rollison himself maintains an age of roughly 40 throughout. He is described as over six feet tall, with dark hair. Rollison's friends refer to him as Rolly, and acquaintances from the East End refer to him as "Mr. Ar".

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