Father Brown is a short, stumpy Roman Catholic Church priest, formerly of Cobhole in Essex, and now working in London, with shapeless clothes and a large umbrella, and an uncanny insight into human evil.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was an English writer, often referred to as the prince of paradox. Chesterton is well known for his fictional priest-detective Father Brown, and for his reasoned apologetics. Even some of those who disagree with him have recognized the wide appeal of such works as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man.